YuGiOh! Episode Nine and Three Quarters
by Skyla Doragono
Summary: Rated PG just to be safe Year One at Hogwarts. Yugi, Marik, Bakura, and Seto are invited to attend a... magic school in ENGLAND!
1. Everyone Blaims Jonouchi

**Yu-Gi-Oh!  
Episode Nine and Three Quarters**

**CHAPTER ONE – EVERYONE BLAMES JONOUCHI**

Yugi Mutou lived in an average city, and was enjoying an average summer before going back to his average high school for his average sophomore year. That was about as average as Yugi's life got, however. While other people simply dressed in the morning, not giving a second thought to the cloths and baubles they put on, Yugi was preoccupied with a certain puzzle hanging from a certain chain and wondering what certain kind of dangers it would bring him that day.

Actually, he never really thought that, his other self that inhabited the Millennium Puzzle did.

Yugi scanned the cloths laid out on his bed, trying to decide what he would wear that day. It was hot, as usual, so he did not want to wear all black like he normally tended to do. He did not want to wear his white and blue shirt either, though, as his best friend, Katsuya Jonouchi, usually wore a similar one in the summer. Finally settling on a pair of jeans and a light blue top, Yugi dressed himself and slipped on his Millennium Puzzle.

The slightly faded form of Yami Yugi appeared next to him almost immediately, stretching and yawning.

"'Morning, aibou," he mumbled. Yugi chuckled at his other half.

"Did you sleep well?" he asked, to which Yami Yugi shook his head. "Why not?"

A dark look suddenly over took his other half's face. "I don't know. I just have a bad feeling about today."

Yugi frowned. "It's not 'insane maniac threatening to take over the universe' kind of bad feeling, is it?"

"Well, no…"

"Good! Then lets go have some fun!"

Yugi grabbed his other half by the arm and tugged him out of the room. Yami Yugi disappeared back into the Millennium Puzzle before they entered the hallway outside, and just in time too. Yugi's mother approached him before he made his way to the kitchen for breakfast, a small envelope in hand.

"Yugi honey, this came for you," she said, handing him the envelope before heading down the stairs next to his room to the game shop below. Yugi frowned at the seemingly innocent looking envelope in his hand. How odd for the mail to come so early!

_What is it, aibou?_ Yami Yugi asked within his mind. _It's just a piece of mail._

_I guess you're right…_ Yugi began, only to have his frown deepen. _Check out the address though!_

Mr. Y. Mutou  
The Bedroom next to the Stairs  
Kame Game Shop  
Domino City  
Japan

_Okay…_ Yami Yugi replied, a little freaked by the exactness of the address. _That's just a little on the odd side. Next thing you know, you'll get another one marked 'Mr. Y. Yugi, Millennium Puzzle, Kame Game Shop, Domino City, Japan'._

_Very funny,_ Yugi remarked dryly, wondering where his other half got a sense of humor while turning the envelope over in his hands. There was no return address on it; no other markings except a strange wax seal on the back, which consisted of an "H" surrounded by four different animals.

_Maybe Jonouchi-kun and Honda-kun are trying to play a prank on us,_ Yugi said.

_Or maybe Kaiba's trying to lure us out into a duel,_ Yami Yugi added.

_Yami Yugi-kun, check the seal on the back. That's an 'H', not a 'K'._

_Ah, but I looked it up, aibou. His last name means 'horse' in your language._

Yugi sweatdropped. He kept forgetting that Yami Yugi's native language was Egyptian, and that he only spoke and understood Japanese because he could. Usually when he said he "looked something up", it meant that he had scanned Yugi's mind for an answer.

_Well, are you going to open it?_ Yami Yugi asked.

Yugi's stomach decided to grumble in protest then at not being fed yet. He blushed, making his way to the kitchen and making himself some toast. He plopped down at the table afterwards, half a mouthful of toast in his mouth as he tore open the envelope. Out fell two folded pieces of paper, an airplane ticket for Domino International Airport, and a train ticket for a Kings Cross Station. He ignored the tickets, setting them to the side of the table, and instead turned his focus to the folded pieces of paper, one of which turned out to be a note.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL  
_of_ WITCHCRAFT _and_ WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore  
_(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,  
__Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. Of Wizards)_

Dear Mr. Mutou,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.

Yours sincerely,

_Minerva McGonagall_

Minerva McGonagall,  
_Deputy Headmistress_

_PS: We are aware that you are older than the standard age for first years, but you will have to start out at year one anyway. We apologize in advance._

_What kind of crock is this!_ Yami Yugi exclaimed after they finished reading.

_If this is a prank, I think Jonouchi's outdone himself,_ Yugi replied numbly, opening up the second piece of paper to reveal the item list promised in the letter.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL  
_of_ WITCHCRAFT _and_ WIZARDRY

UNIFORM  
First-year students will require:

Three sets of plain work robes (black)  
One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear  
One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)  
One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)  
Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags

COURSE BOOKS  
All students should have a copy of each of the following:

_The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1)  
_by Miranda Goshawk  
_A History of Magic_ by Bathilda Bagshot  
_Magical Theory_ by Adalbert Waffling  
_A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration_ by Emeric Switch  
_One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi  
_by Phyllida Spore  
_Magical Drafts and Potions_ by Arsenius Jigger  
_Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them  
_by Newt Scamander  
_The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection  
_by Quentin Trimble

OTHER EQUIPMENT

1 wand  
1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)  
1 set glass or crystal phials  
1 telescope  
1 set brass scales

Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad  
PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS.

_Yami Yugi? _Yugi asked.

_Yeah?_

_You really can't make this stuff up._

_I realize this._

_What are we going to do?_

_We can ask your grandfather later,_ Yami Yugi replied._ Didn't you promise the others you would meet them at the arcade at ten?_

Yugi looked up at the clock. It was almost ten already, and it was at least a half hour to the arcade walking. He stuffed the notes and the tickets back into the envelope, which in turn got stuffed into the back pocket of his jeans, and raced down the stairs and out of the Kame Game Shop.

-.oOOo.-

Yugi walked into the arcade twenty minutes late, only to arrive in the middle of a heated argument between Jonouchi and Marik Ishitar. The young Egyptian was in the other boy's face, waving his arms threateningly. In one of his clenched fists, he held a crumpled envelope like Yugi had received that morning. Anzu Mazaki and Hiroto Honda were busy trying to pull the two of them apart, but it was not working too well.

"What kind of joke is this!" Marik demanded. "I swear, only you would come up with something this extravagant."

"I'm telling you, I don't know what you're talking about!" Jonouchi replied, looking like he was about ready to haul off and smack him. Yugi quickly jumped in-between the two of them, breaking up the fight.

"Marik, you got one of these too?" he asked, holding up his envelope. Marik blinked, surprised, and held up his for Yugi to see.

Mr. M. Ishitar  
The Second Level Bedroom  
23 City Lane  
Domino City  
Japan

"You mean this isn't some kind of joke?" Marik asked, reading the exact address on Yugi's similar envelope. "I thought for sure the koinu did it."

"Grrr… I am _not_ a koinu!" Jonouchi shouted while everyone else sweatdropped. Marik just smiled at him, slyly.

"Oh, I forgot," he said. "Only your love slave, Kaiba, can call you that."

Yugi sweatdropped again, while Anzu and Honda were busy trying to keep Jonouchi from ripping the Egyptian to pieces. Just then, Ryou Bakura entered the arcade, clutching an envelope in his hand and a slightly disturbed look on his face.

"What's wrong, Bakura-kun?" Yugi asked, concerned by the look on his face.

"Did anyone else get any kind of strange mail today?" he asked, holding up the envelope.

Mr. R. Bakura  
The Only Bedroom in the House  
54 Ringmaster Drive  
Domino City  
Japan

"Bakura-kun too!" Marik exclaimed.

"Who the heck is sending these things?" Jonouchi asked, taking a look at Yugi's over his shoulder. "And if it's a prank… why didn't I think of it?"

The doors to the arcade swung open again, and Seto Kaiba entered in an angry huff. His eyes scanned the crowds a moment, coming to a rest on their group. He stalked over to Jonouchi, grabbed him around the collar of his shirt, and hauled him up to his eye level.

"Koinu, I want an explanation," he demanded darkly, holding up an envelope.

Mr. S. Kaiba  
The Master Bedroom  
1 Kaiba Boulevard  
Domino City  
Japan

While Jonouchi, Anzu, and Honda were busy yelling at Seto for making accusations as soon as he entered the place, Marik took Yugi and Bakura aside. A conspiratorial look had grown onto his face, and he had taken the Millennium Rod out from his back pocket and was stroking it thoughtfully.

"Now this is odd," he whispered to the two of them. "If these letters are real, then apparently someone believes us to be gifted in magic. The three of us, I can understand, but that stuffed shirt Kaiba… how anyone would think he could use magic is beyond me."

"I don't understand, why the three of us?" Bakura asked.

"Our Millennium Items," Marik replied, holding up his Rod slightly. "To anyone searching for magic, the people using these items may seem like talented individuals."

"Well, Kaiba-kun is supposed to be the descendant of an ancient Egyptian High Priest, so I guess that explains why he got one," Yugi pointed out. Just then, Seto dropped Jonouchi and turned his malice toward the three of them.

"And what are you three whispering about?" he snarled, obviously not in a good mood. They each held up their envelopes, and Kaiba's eyebrow twitched in response, as if it were degrading that – if the letters were for real – he would have to go to the same magic school with them.

"Kaiba, except for Bakura and Yugi, we all thought Jonouchi did these," Marik began.

"Actually, I thought Jonouchi did it too until I read the item list," Yugi admitted.

"Thanks a lot, Yugi-ster…" Jonouchi grumbled.

"Anyway," Marik continued. "By all accounts, these seem real enough. So why don't we just figure out how to 'send an owl' and we'll go from there?"

Seto let out a dismissive sound in response. "I'll not be a party to such foolishness," he replied, tossing his envelope in the nearest garbage reciprocal before walking back out of the arcade. Marik watched him go, an annoyed look on his face. He fingered the part of his Millennium Rod that concealed the dagger within, wishing he could carve the hieroglyph for "asshole" on Seto's face.

-.oOOo.-

Marik and Bakura ended up going home with Yugi that night, hoping that perhaps Sugoroku Mutou would have some answers to their dilemma. They found the elderly man behind the counter of the Kame Game Shop, getting ready to close up for the night. He greeted his grandson's guests warmly before they showed him their envelopes, and his face darkened.

"Oh my," Sugoroku muttered. "I never thought he'd actually send these…"

"Him?" Marik asked. "You mean that Diddlydore guy?"

"That's _Dumbledore,"_ Yugi's grandfather stressed, "and you'd do well to show him some respect, young Ishitar."

Marik rolled his eyes as Yugi asked, "Ojii-chan, do you know what these are for?"

Sugoroku leaned forward on the counter, lacing his fingers together. "Yugi, there are a lot of things I haven't told you about the Millennium Puzzle," he said, "and one of those things is how I got it, but in order for you to understand that, you'll have to hear a little bit of history."

Marik groaned, prompting Bakura to elbow him. Sugoroku used the distraction to take a moment to clear his throat.

"When I was your age," he began, "I also received a strange letter by owl. My mother had heard of Hogwarts, but never believed that I would be accepted. She sent me off to England –"

"England!" Marik interrupted. "This school is in England! Why are we getting invitations then?"

"Marik!" Yugi and Bakura scolded. Marik winced, but kept quiet.

"Ahem, as I was saying," Sugoroku continued, "I went to school at Hogwarts, and was in the same year as Albus Dumbledore. However, I was too preoccupied with games and other such things to pay attention to my studies and was ultimately expelled. Dumbledore and I still kept in touch, however, and I eventually met up again with him in Egypt. He informed me that a group of scholars were excavating in a nearby ruins and he felt it best that I went along with them."

"Lemme guess," Marik interrupted again, getting dirty looks from Bakura and Yugi, "the ruins turned out to be where the Millennium Puzzle was entombed." Sugoroku nodded. "The Gravekeepers had cursed that place, so that only those descended from the pharaoh would be able to go in and live to tell the tale."

Sugoroku nodded once again. "And I was the only one who did survive," he said. "I took the box that contained the Millennium Puzzle and I ran, leaving the bodies of the scholars behind. I met back up with Dumbledore; at first I hated him for making me go, but he explained to me that the Puzzle and the other Millennium Items would be needed soon."

The three boys exchanged looks before they suddenly found their feet interesting. Yugi's grandfather chuckled before continuing his story.

"I kept the Puzzle hidden, vowing never to even look at it until I got an owl from Dumbledore telling me to use it." He smiled ruefully. "But then, eight years ago, a certain grandchild of mine got his grubby little paws on it and started assembling it. I sent an owl to Dumbledore right away, but he told me to let you complete it. After everything started happening with the spirit of the pharaoh and Marik's dark personality, I voiced my concern to him. He assured me that everything would be all right, but should ever the need arise, he would send for you to attend Hogwarts."

"But, Ojii-chan, the danger's past," Yugi protested. "Yami Yugi-kun has regained his memories, Yami Marik is lost in the Shadow Realm, and the God Cards power has diminished. What could possibly be wrong that I – that all three of us as well as Kaiba-kun – have to go to this place?"

Sugoroku shook his head. "I don't know, Yugi," he answered. "I'll send an owl to Dumbledore and ask him." He raised an eyebrow. "Though I assume all three of you would want to go to Hogwarts anyway?"

Bakura and Yugi nodded. "Heck yeah!" Marik exclaimed. "Oh, by the way, you might want to let Dumbledore know that Kaiba is a bit reluctant to be a 'party to such foolishness'."

Marik puffed out his chest as he repeated Seto's words from before, drawing laughs out of the other two boys at the impression. Sugoroku rolled his eyes, wondering if Hogwarts would be able to survive the three (five counting the two yamis) of them.


	2. Diagon Alley

**Yu-Gi-Oh!  
Episode Nine and Three Quarters**

The poem on the door to Gringotts was excerpted from the books.

**CHAPTER TWO – DIAGON ALLEY**

Several weeks later found Yugi, Marik, and Bakura alone in the middle of a London street, carrying their luggage behind them. The shorter boy was in the lead, reading off of a piece of paper loaded with instructions that his grandfather had given him.

"Okay," he announced, "we need to go to a place called the Leaky Cauldron and introduce ourselves to the bartender, Tom. He'll put us up in rooms, and show us how to get into a place called 'Diagon Alley'. Once there, we have to go to someplace called Gringotts to exchange our yen for wizard money, and then we can get our school supplies."

Bakura looked around as Yugi read off of the paper, trying to find a sign or anything pointing to the Leaky Cauldron. Who came up with such names anyway? It was all so very odd. Finally spotting it, he tugged the others toward it, ignoring the fact that most people seemed to walk by the place as if it was not there. Sugoroku had warned them to expect it, as some places had enchantments that prevented muggles – non-magical people – from seeing them.

They entered the pub, only to find it dark and musty, with a bunch of people crowded around a giant of a man and a skinny scrap of a boy with tousled hair. The three of them waited until the commotion died down, and the giant and the boy disappeared out the back of the pub before going up to bartender to introduce themselves. Bartender Tom tossed his cleaning rag down on the counter in surprise.

"Well, I'll be!" he exclaimed. "First Harry Potter comes by, and now the grandson of ol' Mutou and his buddies!" Tom reached down and tousled Yugi's hair. "That's an interesting mix you got there. What kind of magic do you use to make it stay those colors?"

"Believe it or not, that's natural," Marik answered for him while Yugi flushed bright red as Tom took his hand off of his head, and his hair sprung back into its normal place. Afterwards, Tom took them upstairs to their rooms so they could deposit their belongings. They came out a few minutes later; each of them with disturbed looks on their faces.

"My mirror talked to me," Yugi muttered. "And I don't mean Yami Yugi was in the mirror talking to me, I mean the mirror itself talked to me."

"I think my bed has a thing for me," Marik said, a queasy look on his face. "It said I was the lightest thing that ever sat down on it."

"My bed lamp had a hissy fit as soon as I turned it on," Bakura complained. "It said that it was too bright for it to be on. Who ever heard of items _talking!"_

"Ojii-chan did warn us that the wizard world was much different from what we're used to," Yugi pointed out. "I didn't think it would be _this_ different though…"

They went back downstairs to find Tom waiting for them. He motioned them toward the back of the shop, where the giant and the boy had disappeared to before. However, they only found themselves staring at a crumbling brick wall.

"Um… now what?" Marik asked.

Tom chuckled as he took out a wand from his vest pocket. "Watch closely lads, this way you can get back inside on your own next time. Just remember, three up and two across starting from the trash can."

The Bartender tapped the indicated brick with his wand three times. At first, nothing happened, but then the brick started to wiggle in place. The whole wall started quivering, and soon the bricks were sliding to the sides, revealing a large archway that led to a cobbled street. All around, people dressed in strange robes were milling about, buying various things from the many shops lined up along the street. On a sign high above – faded with age – were the words "Diagon Alley" printed in English. Marik, Yugi, and Bakura could do nothing but stare in utter amazement.

"All right then, lads," Tom said. "You going to be okay from here?"

They nodded numbly, and the bartender retreated back into the Leaky Cauldron as the three of them entered the Alley. Everything around them was so beyond what they were used to, it shocked them to the core. They stared as they passed the stores: Eeylops Owl Emporium, Ollivanders (Makers of Fine Wands since 382 BC), and even a store selling brooms of all things. A group of kids were pressed around the window for that store, muttering something about a "new Nimbus 2000" or something like that. Bakura had to keep Marik from running off to the Apothecary ("You have some sick tastes," he said), while Yugi busily directed them to Gringotts, following the instructions on the note.

They found the wizard's bank easily enough, and the three of them soon found themselves staring up at the crooked pure white building and the two goblins guarding the entrance in awe.

"Mutou Ojii-san never said anything about goblins," Bakura gulped as they entered the polish white doors. They found themselves staring at another set of doors, these with words engraved upon them.

_Enter, stranger, but take heed  
__Of what awaits the sin of greed,  
__For those who take, but do not earn,  
__Must pay most dearly in their turn.  
__So if you seek beneath our floors  
__A treasure that was never yours,  
__Thief, you have been warned, beware  
__Of finding more than treasure there._

Bakura held up his Millennium Ring to the words, as if letting the spirit that dwelled within read it.

"Can you see that, my yami?" he asked. "Basically, that means if you steal from here, you're screwed, so _don't_ for once!"

Yugi and Marik chuckled, almost able to picture the sour look on Yami Bakura's face. They pushed open the doors, and found themselves staring at two long counters stretching out to who knew how far. All along both counters, there were goblins sitting on high stools, writing in thick ledgers, balancing money on scales, or examining precious stones. The three of them went up to the first one, Marik voting himself to do the talking.

"Ano… konnichuwa –"

"Wrong language, Marik," Yugi pointed out.

"Whoops," Marik replied, rubbing the back of his neck. He put a fist full of yen up on the counter. "We need these exchanged for… err…"

The goblin quickly snatched the yen on the counter, counted it, and gave him a handful of gold, silver, and bronze coins.

"Next."

Yugi and Bakura did the same – Yugi having a little difficulty reaching the counter – and they soon found themselves walking back out with handfuls of the coins.

"Okay, what's what?" Marik asked, inspecting one of his gold coins. Yugi took out the note that his grandfather had written.

"The gold ones are Galleons, the silver are Sickles, and the bronze are Knuts," he announced. "Seventeen Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle. That doesn't sound so hard."

"Just as long as it gets us what we need," Bakura said, pocketing his wizard money. "So, where to now?"

The three of them looked at each other, coming to the same conclusion. "Wands!"

They raced back down the street, where they had spotted the store called Ollivanders. They entered the musty old shop to find it seemingly deserted. There was only a small counter and a few waiting chairs inside. The rest of the shop was filled to the brim with small boxes, most likely all of them containing wands. Yugi went up to the small counter to ring the bell, but just as his hand was positioned over it, an elderly man poked his head out from behind a large shelf. His wide, pale eyes observed the three of them, before his mouth cracked into a thin smile.

"Ah yes," the man said. "Ah yes, you must be the Japanese students that Professor Dumbledore told me about. Hum, yes." Mr. Ollivander jumped down from the ladder he was on, shaking each of their hands before asking, "Which one of you is _not_ possessed by a spirit?"

Yugi and Bakura pointed to Marik.

"Then I'll let you go first," the old man continued, pulling out a long tape measure from his pocket. "Which is your wand arm?"

"Uh… well, I'm right handed if that's what you mean," Marik answered, wishing that the man would blink every now and then.

Mr. Ollivander instructed him to hold out his right arm, and measured as he started to explain, "Every wand in this shop has a core of a very powerful magical substance, young gentlemen. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, phoenixes, or dragons are the same. I wanted to get you your wand first, Mr. Ishitar, because you are a 'normal' young wizard. Mr. Mutou and Mr. Bakura also have their other selves to consider, and that may make the wand choosing process quite difficult."

Marik suddenly realized that Mr. Ollivander was busy poking through various shelves of wands, and the tape measurer – which was measuring between his nostrils – was doing so on its own. He sneezed, scaring the object and making it crumple to the floor. Yugi and Bakura sweatdropped as Marik flushed in embarrassment.

"Here we are," Mr. Ollivander said, simply sliding the measurer out of the way with his foot. "Try this one. Beech wood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible. Just take it and give it a wave."

Marik took the wand and, feeling foolish, waved it a bit. A stream of something came out of it, knocking down a shelf full of wands. He sweatdropped, putting the wand down on the counter carefully.

"That wand doesn't seem to like anyone, I see," Mr. Ollivander replied, not the least bit miffed by the accident. He handed Marik another wand. "Ebony and phoenix feather. Eleven inches. Quite springy. Try this one."

As soon as Marik gripped the wand, he felt a warmth spread through his fingers and fill his whole body. He swished the wand about, and a stream of red and gold sparks came flying out from the end like an indoor fireworks display. Yugi and Bakura stared in awe as Marik whooped in delight. He paid his seven gold galleons for the wand before sitting down and allowing Bakura to go next.

Bakura took a bit longer, but once he explained to Mr. Ollivander that the spirit of the Millennium Ring was that of an ancient tomb robber, the elderly man was able to narrow the choice of wands down considerably.

"Try this one, then," he said. "Mahogany and unicorn hair. Seven inches. Pliable. Go on then."

Bakura gave the wand a wave, and a stream of yellow and black sparks came shooting out of it.

"All right, Bakura-kun!" Yugi exclaimed as the young man paid for his wand.

Now it was Yugi's turn, and he eagerly bounded up to get his wand arm measured. Afterwards, Mr. Ollivander started testing wands on him. The first wand he tried cracked the shop window glass, the second wand sent a miniature earthquake through Diagon Alley, and the third one shattered the glass entirely. The wands kept piling up, and after fifteen minutes, they were all getting frustrated.

"Tricky customer, eh?" Mr. Ollivander said.

Bakura's eyes suddenly narrowed and his hair upturned slightly. "Bloody hell, you damned pharaoh! You always have to be so damn picky!"

Bakura's hair and eyes returned to normal as he put a hand over his mouth in shock. He thought he had better control over his yami than that. Mr. Ollivander looked down at Yugi in a new light, however.

"Pharaoh, eh?" he muttered. "Curious… I wonder…"

He retreated to the back of the store, and came back out a few minutes later with a thin black box in his hands. He opened it up to reveal a golden wand with a handle wrapped in leather.

"Most wands are usually made of wood, but this wand was made by the last of the Egyptian craftsmen," he explained. "They made their wands with hardened papyrus or gold. This is gold with dragon heartstring. Nine inches. If this one doesn't work, then I'm at a loss."

Mr. Ollivander held the case down so Yugi could take the wand. As soon as he gripped the leather handle, he felt warmth so deep course through him that it even penetrated the doors that led to both his and Yami Yugi's souls. The spirit of the pharaoh stirred, caught off guard by the feeling.

_Aibou, what the –?_

Before he could finish, Yugi brought the wand swishing down, lighting up the whole store with red and gold sparks. Bakura and Marik jumped up from their seats, surprised, as Mr. Ollivander smiled, satisfied. Yugi turned to the elderly man as the sparks died down, a guilty look on his face.

"Sorry about the window," he said, digging out the money for the wand as the elderly man waved the apology away.

"A simple repair spell can fix that," he said dismissively. "On your way now. I'm sure you have much more shopping left to do."

.oOOo.

Later that night, the three boys piled into Yugi's room, inspecting everything they had bought that day and making sure they got what they needed for school. In two separate cages on the nightstand, a brown owl with black and white speckles and a pure white owl stood on their respective perches, hooting softly to one another. On Marik's lap, a Siamese cat was curled up, purring slightly each time he petted it. Yugi looked up at the two of them as he checked off the cauldron on his list.

"Marik, how come you didn't get an owl?" he asked. "They're pretty useful from what we've seen."

Marik shrugged. "Yeah, but I saw this little guy and I just couldn't resist," he said. He smiled sadly then. "I think I'll call him Rishid…" He perked up then, before the others could catch on to his sadness at the bad memory. "What are you guys going to call your owls?"

Bakura reached over and handed his owl a small cracker. The animal nipped his fingers in thank you before chowing down on the little treat.

"I think I'll call mine Talia," he said. "It was my oka-san's name, and she's where I get my hair from."

"Fitting," Marik replied, chuckling. "Yugi? What about you?"

Yugi scrunched up his face in thought, staring at his owl. The tri-colored animal stared back at him, hooting a bit as if he were offering him ideas. After a long moment, he finally answered.

"Panseru," he replied.

Marik blinked. "After the pharaoh?"

Yugi smiled. "Sure! After all, Yami Yugi-kun is the first friend I ever really had, and I his first friend in five thousand years. He discarded his old name in order to stay with me, so it's only fitting that I give it to a new part of our lives."

Within the recesses of his mind, he could feel his other half smiling broadly. Bakura flopped back on the bed, letting out a sigh.

"I still can't believe we're going to a _magic_ school!" he exclaimed. "It was hard enough accepting the fact that a tomb robber shares my body."

"Better a tomb robber than a psychopath," Marik pointed out.

"That you created," Yugi pointed out in turn.

Marik sweatdropped. "Don't remind me."

Bakura chuckled. "My whole point is: are we really cut out for this sort of thing?"

Marik took out his Millennium Rod from the back pocket of his pants. "Hey, we were chosen as the holders of our Millennium Items; not an easy standing by all means. If we survived the trials that these Items put us through, I think we can survive a simple magic school. Besides, we've already made it through the first test."

"Test?" Bakura asked.

"Our wands," Marik explained. "I don't think they would have reacted at all if we didn't even have a small amount of magic in us. And, judging from the way the wands reacted when Yugi tried to use them, we know who'll probably be the strongest out of us."

Yugi blushed. "That was just weird."

"Anyway, my point is," Marik continued, "we've already done the hard stuff. Now all we got to do is just keep on living. Besides, guys, what's the worst that could happen?"


	3. Platform 9 34 and the Hogwarts Express

**Yu-Gi-Oh!  
Episode Nine and Three Quarters**

_Kawaita Sakebi_ was written by Field of View. They own it, not me.

**CHAPTER THREE – PLATFORM 9¾ AND THE HOGWARTS EXPRESS**

September first came faster than the three boys had counted on, and they soon found themselves and their luggage at London's Kings Cross Station. There, they were to get on their train – the Hogwarts Express – and take it along with their fellow students up to wherever it was that the school was located. There was just one slight problem: the platform on their tickets said nine and three quarters. Marik and Bakura looked at the dividing wall for platforms nine and ten, while Yugi pondered over the instructions his grandfather gave them.

"Lemme get this straight," Marik began, pointing at the wall. "Mutou Ojii-san wants us to run right into a brick wall… and expect not to get hurt?"

"Well, he did say some things were hidden from muggle view," Yugi pointed out. "Maybe the wall is like a teleport or something."

"You can go first, Yugi-kun," Bakura said, uneasily.

_Chicken,_ Yami Bakura sneered none too nicely.

Bakura sweatdropped. "Never mind. I'll go first."

Before the others could stop him, Bakura gripped the handles of the cart that his luggage was piled on and plowed right toward the wall. Marik and Yugi winced, looking away just before he hit the wall. Instead of the crash they expected to hear, however, they heard nothing except the normal goings on of the train station. They looked back at the wall, to see that Bakura had vanished. They looked at each other perplexed, before Marik gripped the handles of his cart.

"I'm next!" he exclaimed.

"Right behind you!"

The two of them ran right for the wall, and just when they were going to crash headlong into it, a _whoosh_ing sound filled their ears, and all of a sudden they found themselves staring at a large scarlet steam engine. Above them was a large sign that read in English, "Platform Nine and Three Quarters; Hogwarts Express, eleven o' clock." Just a ways inside, Bakura was waiting for them, a giddy expression spreading across his face as they joined up with him.

"That was _so_ cool!" the three of them said at once.

-.oOOo.-

Marik, Bakura, and Yugi sat about their train compartment, preoccupying themselves with various tasks. Yugi was busy staring out the window; being the only one there that had never seen any country outside of Japan, the scenery that whizzed past the train fascinated him. Marik was polishing the Millennium Rod, something that he claimed he had not done in awhile. Rishid was curled up along his master's shoulders, pawing at the rag he was using to clean the Item with every time it came close. Bakura was reading a book he had bought, entitled _Hogwarts: A History._ Even though it was not part of the curriculum, he had thought it would be best that they knew as much about the place they would be staying and learning at as possible.

"Interesting," he muttered under his breath, "even the staircases have a mind of their own in this place."

"I hope stairs that go up don't decide to become stairs that go down without warning," Marik commented dryly, returning his Item to its proper place in his back pocket.

"Not like that, they just change where they lead to without warning," Bakura replied, closing the book as the other boy sighed.

"This is the most boring part of the trip," he announced. "No offense, Yugi-kun."

Yugi turned away from the window. "None taken. There's not much to look at out there."

Marik smiled slyly, taking out a harmonica from a pocket hidden in his shirt. Bakura groaned at the sight of it, covering his face with a hand.

"I regret ever getting you that," he mumbled. "You only play one song on it."

"Geeze, you say that like it _wasn't_ one of your favorite songs," Marik replied sourly.

"It does get a little repetitive, Marik-kun," Yugi added

"Ah, quiet and sing it, will 'ya?" Marik said, before putting the instrument to his mouth and playing the opening sequence. Yugi and Bakura started singing along, quietly at first, but then more jovially as they started to pick up on the beat of the music.

_Kono mama mou sukoshi  
__Arukou kata wo taki  
__Kieyuku yume wo kazoe  
__Kareteku nakama wo mita  
__Kayoi nareta michi ni mayoi komu kono goro  
__Yami ga mou hitori no jibun wo tsukuru_

_Kawaita sakebi ga  
__Kujike souna mune ni tsukisasu  
__Kimi wo sasotte sakai wo mitai na  
__(COME ALONG WITH ME)  
__Darenimo dasenai, kotae ga boku no naka ni aru  
__Kake hiki ga kagi todoke FLY AT HIGHER GAME_

Marik started to play the interlude between the first chorus and the second verse of the song, but he hit a sour note, letting loose a noise that did not sound too pleasant. The three boys practically fell on top of each other laughing, and in their mirth, did not notice that someone was knocking on the door of their compartment until the person snapped it open.

"I thought I recognized a foul noise coming from here."

They looked up in surprise to see Seto Kaiba standing at the doorway, glaring down at them. The CEO of the largest producer of electronic games looked out of place, having traded the trench coat he was known to wear almost all the time for a wizard's robe. Marik managed to pull himself together first, looking the taller boy up and down.

"Well now, I see you finally decided to join us here," he commented. "Which raises the question: 'Who's the more foolish? The fool or the fool who follows him?'"

Yugi pulled Marik back down to his seat. "You've been watching too much American television."

Seto spared the three of them another glare – most of it focused on Yugi, of course – before whirling around and heading back to his own compartment.

"Snob," Marik growled.

"I hope he ends up in Slytherin," Bakura said.

"Come again?"

"It's one of the four houses in Hogwarts," he explained, holding up the book he had been reading previously. "Slytherin, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw; named after the four people who founded the school. Slytherin is where 'those with cunning' go to, and it's also the house that's produced the most dark wizards."

"Lovely, just what we need," Marik said sarcastically, crossing his arms across his chest, "a bratty dark –"

He was cut off as a young girl with bushy brown hair poked her head into the compartment. She did a rough scan of the small room with her eyes before turning her focus to them.

"Have you seen a toad by any chance?" she asked in a heavy British accent. "A boy named Neville's lost one."

"Sorry, no one here but us kids," Marik answered in Japanese.

"Pardon?"

Marik repeated himself, in English this time, but she wasn't paying attention. She had caught sight of Yugi's hair, and was gawking at it rather rudely.

"Good lord!" she exclaimed. "How do you get it to stay up like that?"

"It's natural," Marik and Bakura said at the same time as Yugi blushed. The girl stared at his hair a moment longer, before shrugging and leaving. Marik leaned forward in his seat.

"Whatever house I end up in," he began. "I hope she's not in it."

"Ditto," Yugi agreed as Bakura nodded.

"So, what are the other houses supposed to be like, Bakura-kun?" Marik asked, leaning back in his seat again, and giving Rishid a friendly stroke of his fur.

"Well, Ravenclaw is basically a house for people who excel in the brains department," Bakura began, skimming through his book. Marik grinned.

"No one here; next!"

Bakura chuckled. "Hufflepuff is a house of patient folk who are loyal to their allies," he continued. "I think I'll end up in that one. And Gryffindor is for the brave at heart."

Marik pointed to himself. "Oh, yeah! That's the house for me!"

A worried look crossed Yugi's face. Which one was the house for the shy kids that did not want to draw too much attention to themselves? None of those houses seemed to really describe him, and that fact was making him re-think about going to this place.

"Just as long as we don't end up in Slytherin, we should be good," Marik continued. "After all –"

He cut himself off, looking up to see a pale blonde boy and two others that could only be described as thugs standing in the doorway, staring at them.

"Is there a problem?" Marik asked, making sure he said it in English.

"What bloody language are you people speaking?" the pale boy demanded, staring at him and Yugi, mostly at his hair. Bakura, being the most normal looking one in the group, decided to speak up in his friends' defense.

"We're speaking Japanese," he answered. "We're here from Japan."

The boy scoffed at his reply. "Bloody foreigners," he snapped. "Isn't your own magic school good enough for you? And what is with you?" he asked, directing the question to Yugi. "Did you get into a fight with a starfish?"

Yugi looked down at his feet as Marik stood up, towering over the boy. "Care to repeat that?" he asked darkly. The boy just looked up at him, a confident sneer spread across his face.

"I'm sorry, ma'am –" He cut himself off, mockingly putting a hand over his mouth. "I'm sorry, with all that jewelry, I didn't realize you were a guy."

Marik looked like he was going to kill the boy. He reached behind his back, and had his hand completely around his Millennium Rod before Yugi jumped up and latched onto his arm.

"Iie, Marik-kun!" he exclaimed. "It's not worth it!"

He looked down at Yugi's pleading eyes before settling on pushing the pale boy roughly and slamming the compartment door closed in his face, locking it this time. He plopped back down in his seat, a deep scowl settling on his face.

"And I thought Kaiba-kun was bad," Bakura commented softly. Marik shook his head.

"No matter how much of an asshole you think someone is, there's always another person that's ten times worse," he replied sourly. "Bakura, I take back what you said for you. I _don't _hope Kaiba will end up in Slytherin, because I know for sure that brat will be there, and I wouldn't wish that ill on anyone I know."

Bakura blinked. "You hate the kid that much?"

"Bakura-kun, not many people I meet I want to send to the Shadow Realm right away," Marik explained. "That kid… I wouldn't've minded sending him there in _pieces."_

Yugi turned his gaze back out to the window. It had darkened considerably since he had last cared to look, and he could have sworn he felt the train slowing down. Just then, the announcer came on the intercom, saying that they would be at the school soon. The three boys reached up to their suitcases, scrambling to put on their robes before the train stopped.

"This is it," Marik said, fitting the robe on easily enough, used to the feel of such a garment from his days as the leader of GHOULS. Yugi and Bakura struggled a bit, feeling a little silly in such odd clothing. "No turning back now, right guys?"

"Like we were ever going to," Yugi commented sourly. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm a little nervous."

"Ah, don't be nervous," Marik urged, giving him a friendly slap on the back. "Whatever happens, happens. It can't be any worse than what we've already been through."

Yugi cocked his head, looking like he was listening to something, before smiling. "Yami Yugi-kun says you took the words right out of his mouth."


	4. Arrival at Hogwarts and the Sorting Hat

**Yu-Gi-Oh!  
Episode Nine and Three Quarters**

Hagrid's words ('cause his accent is a pain), and the Sorting Hat song were excerpted from the book.

**CHAPTER FOUR – ARRIVAL AT HOGWARTS AND THE SORTING HAT**

The night air was breathtakingly cold when Yugi, Marik, and Bakura managed to push their way out of the train to join the rest of the students on the train platform. A steep narrow path stretched out before them, and they could just make out a bobbing light coming toward them. The owner of the light stepped onto the platform, revealing the giant man the three boys had gotten a glimpse of back at the Leaky Cauldron.

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here!"

They followed a group of other students – a small group, compared to the overall number of kids there – as they crowded around the giant. He led them all down the long dirt path; it was slippery from a previous rainfall, and that coupled with his new odd clothing made the going tough for Yugi. He slipped, and crashed into the back of Seto. The much taller boy turned around and glared at him, and then rolled his eyes. Before Yugi knew what was going on, Seto had grabbed him around the waist and hauled him up to sit on his shoulder.

"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec, jus' round this bend here," the giant man called over his shoulder.

They turned the bend in the path, and there was a collective gasp from the students. They had arrived at the shore of an inky black lake, a long line of boats waiting patiently for them. Out beyond the lake, perched comfortably on a small mountain, was what could only be described as a _castle._ Tall spires, dotted with the lights of evening fires, stretched up to the sky as if reaching for the stars themselves. Even Seto gaped in awe at the sight.

"Sugoi!" Yugi exclaimed. "No offense, Kaiba-kun, but this place beats out your mansion."

"Hai," Seto agreed, numbly, setting the other boy back on the ground.

"No more'n four to a boat!" the giant man bellowed.

The Japanese boys (well, three Japanese and one Egyptian) all scrambled for a boat, afraid to end up in the same vessel with either the bushy-haired girl or the snobbish pale blonde boy. They set off soon after everyone was settled, the boats propelling themselves toward the school. Seto leaned over the side a bit, as if searching for something. Marik smirked at him.

"Forget it, Kaiba," he said. "There's no wires or pulleys or machines. It's all magic."

"Pft," was Seto's indignant reply, not even bothering to glare at him.

"Kaiba-kun," Yugi began, "what made you finally decide to come here?"

Seto crossed his arms across his chest, looking like he was not in the mood to discuss it, especially with them. He looked down at Yugi's pleading eyes, however, and eventually folded.

"When I woke up the next morning after receiving that first letter, my entire room was covered with the same letter," he explained. "I had someone clean up the mess while I went to work. At the end of the day, some old man in a dress came to my house. He took me to a place called Diagon Alley to prove his point." He shook his head. "I'm still trying to figure out how we got from Domino to there in a few seconds…"

"That must have been that Diddlydore guy!" Marik exclaimed suddenly. Bakura and Yugi sweatdropped.

"That's _Dumbledore_, Marik-kun," Bakura corrected, getting a glare out of the Egyptian.

"You know three different languages and see how fumbled your words get," he replied. "I knew what I meant."

Yugi took the moment the other two boys were wasting arguing to explain to Seto what his grandfather had told him. The taller boy raised an eyebrow, not amused by the tale.

"And what does this have to do with me?" he asked. Yugi just shrugged.

"I dunno," he replied, "maybe the same thing that had to do with you being the only person without a Millennium Item that was able to use a Kami-no-Cardo before their powers were dispelled."

Seto did not have a response to that, and wisely kept his mouth shut.

-.oOOo.-

After the short boat ride, the boys along with the other first year students found themselves standing at the front doors of the Hogwarts castle. The giant man reached up and knocked on the large double doors three times, and they opened almost immediately to reveal a tall, elderly woman in emerald green and black robes. She had a thin look to her face, making her look strict. Yugi and Seto both gulped reflexively, reminded of their freshman year math teacher.

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," the man announced.

"Thank you, Hagrid," the woman replied with a very slight amount of warmth to her voice. "I will take them from here."

The first year students shepherded themselves into the castle, only to arrive in a main foyer big enough to fit the entire Kame Game Shop. There was the sound of chatter to the right – possibly the other students – but the professor led them to a smaller room on the left. Marik elbowed Yugi as they entered the room.

"Hey, Yugi-kun, remember the letter?" he whispered. "She's the Deputy Headmistress _and_ a professor?"

"If we end up in her class," he whispered back, "we'd better not act up, ne?"

As soon as everyone was settled in the room, Professor McGonagall turned around to face them.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," she announced. "Now, before you join your fellow students, you will be sorted into your houses. They are Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, and Slytherin. While you are here, your house will be like your family. Points will be awarded for academic achievement and other triumphs. However, any rule breaking, and you will loose points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points will be awarded the house cup, a great honor here at this school. The Sorting Ceremony will begin shortly. Do try to smarten yourselves up before then."

She glanced pointedly at a few students before leaving. Seto crossed his arms, annoyed.

"A ceremony?" he asked. "What the devil are we supposed to do?"

"Just as long it isn't anything like what happened with our wands," Yugi replied dryly. A slight tinge appeared on the taller boy's cheeks.

"I hope not," he muttered. "I'm not even going to tell you what happened with mine."

"Compared to what happened with us, I think we already have a vague idea," Marik replied. They had been speaking in Japanese, and were getting some strange looks from the other students. They sighed before switching to English.

"That's been happening a lot too," Bakura added. "I guess they don't get too many foreign students here."

Professor McGonagall returned soon after that, and ordered everyone to quiet down. She then told them to form a straight line, and they did so before she led them back into the main foyer and into the room where all the chatter had come from before.

If the main foyer could fit the Kame Game Shop in it, then the Great Hall could fit Kaiba Corporation Headquarters. Four long wooden tables were lined up before them, filled almost to the brim with students from other years. At the very end of the tables was another, facing perpendicular to the student tables, where several people who could only be the other professors sat waiting for them. Above their heads, candles floated about the room lazily. Even higher than that, was what looked like a gigantic skylight revealing the starry night outside. The only indication that it _was not_ a skylight, was the slight pattern of the ceiling visible in certain places.

The professor led the first years to the top of the hall, and lined them up with their backs facing the teacher's table. Before them, she placed a four-legged stool, and set a patched and fraying black wizard's hat on it. Yugi stared at it, perplexed. What the heck were they supposed to do with that thing? After a moment, a rip near the top of the hat opened up wide like a mouth, and it began to _sing._

_Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,  
__But don't judge on what you see,  
__I'll eat myself if you can find  
__A smarter hat than me.  
__You can keep you bowlers black,  
__Your top hats sleek and tall,  
__For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat  
__And I can cap them all.  
__There's nothing hidden in your head  
__The Sorting Hat can't see,  
__So try me on and I will tell you  
__Where you ought to be._

_You might belong in Gryffindor,  
__Where dwell the brave at heart,  
__Their daring, nerve, and chivalry  
__Set Gryffindors apart;  
__You might belong in Hufflepuff,  
__Where they are just and loyal,  
__Those patient Hufflepuffs are true  
__And unafraid of toil;  
__Or yet wise old Ravenclaw,  
__If you've a ready mind,  
__Where those of wit and learning,  
__Will always find their kind;  
__Or perhaps in Slytherin  
__You'll make your real friends,  
__Those cunning folk use any means  
__To achieve their ends._

_So put me on! Don't be afraid!  
__And don't get in a flap!  
__You're in safe hands (though I have none)  
__For I'm a Thinking Cap!_

Yugi felt himself melt in a bit of relief. All they had to do was put on a silly hat and it would tell them where they belonged? That was easy!

Professor McGonagall lifted the hat up with one hand as she unrolled a length of parchment with the other. "When I call your name," she announced, "please sit down and put on the hat. Abbott, Hannah!"

A girl with blonde pigtails came out of the line and sat down. Bakura gulped as she slipped the hat on over her head.

"I think they're going in alphabetical order," he whispered nervously. "T-t-that means –"

"HUFFLEPUFF!" the Sorting Hat shouted, cutting him off. The table on the farthest right cheered and clapped as the young girl went over to join her fellow classmates.

"Bakura, Ryou!" McGonagall announced. Bakura went over to the stool, his knees shaking the whole way. By the time he actually sat down, the professor had to put the hat on for him – he was quaking so hard he was afraid he would drop it. The Sorting Hat fell over his eyes, and at first, nothing happened. Then, he heard at tiny little voice in his head… and it wasn't Yami Bakura!

"Hum… not a bad mind here," the Sorting Hat whispered. "But, you're more of a follower than a leader. So, just to be safe, let's make it HUFFLEPUFF!"

Bakura willingly took the hat off and handed it back to Professor McGonagall before going to the same table that Hannah Abbott had gone too. He tossed Marik and Yugi an "I told you so" look before sitting down. Several more names went by, with a couple more going to Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, and one a piece going to Gryffindor and Slytherin. When "Granger, Hermione" was called, the bushy-haired girl from before raced up to the stool and jammed the hat onto her head.

"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat shouted after a few seconds, bringing a scowl to Marik's face.

"Dammit," he muttered, getting a chuckle out of Yugi.

"Ishitar, Marik!" McGonagall called. Marik immediately plopped down onto the stool and slipped the hat on over his eyes.

"Oh my, quite a bit of darkness piled up in your head," the hat whispered. "You weren't always a nice person, were you? There is a strong thirst to prove that you have a good heart, however. Well, you'll get your chance to do so in GRYFFINDOR!"

Marik took the Sorting Hat off and handed it to the professor. He gave Yugi a wink and a thumbs up before joining the middle left table.

"Kaiba, Seto!"

Seto, the tallest one out of everyone who had been called so far, sat down and put on the hat. The voice of the Sorting Hat came almost immediately.

"Oh, we have a brainy boy here!" it exclaimed. "It's clear where you belong. RAVENCLAW!"

Seto handed the hat back to McGonagall and joined the middle right table, his expression never changing from his usual stern scowl. That left Yugi as the only one out of the four of them left in line. He got a queasy feeling to his stomach as "Longbottom, Neville" was called. What if the Sorting Hat did not place him anywhere? What if it declared that there had been a mistake and he should go home?

_Don't worry so much, aibou,_ came the reassuring voice of Yami Yugi as Neville was announced a Gryffindor and "MacDougal, Morag" was called. _You'll get placed in the house that's right for you, just like all the others._

Yugi smiled inwardly. _Arigato, Yami Yugi-kun._

"Malfoy, Draco" was called, and the pale blonde boy from the train swaggered up to the stool. He started to place the Sorting Hat on his head, but it appeared to be struggling, as if it did not want to touch him.

"SLYTHERIN!" it shouted. Draco Malfoy smirked before joining the two thugs he had been with on the train at the far left table. There was another student called, and then it was…

"Mutou, Yugi!"

He could hear faint giggles coming from around the room as he stepped out of line and sat down on the stool. He wondered briefly if his grandfather ever had this problem before cramming the Sorting Hat over his hair.

"Ouch!" the hat exclaimed. "Watch where you're pointing that hair, boy!"

Yugi sweatdropped as Yami Yugi replied tersely, _That's _my_ partner you're insulting._

"Oh, so sorry," the Sorting Hat apologized. "Well, now, lets see now… A great mind, that's for sure, a great amount of cunning, and plenty of loyalty. You could be a mascot for all the houses. However, your courage outshines them all, so away with you to GRYFFINDOR!"

Yugi nearly melted in relief as he took off the hat and handed it back to McGonagall. He joined Marik at the Gryffindor table, who stood up and gave him a high-five before the two of them sat back down together. There were not many left now, and the two friends would have ignored the rest if one name had not shocked the whole hall into silence.

"Potter, Harry!"

Yugi and Marik looked up to see the short, skinny boy they had spotted in the company of Hagrid the giant back at the Leaky Cauldron. Everyone else in the room stared at him in awed silence, but they – as well as Seto and Bakura, though they could not see them – were confused. What was so special about this boy? The boy put on the Sorting Hat, and everyone waited in a hushed silence, some people holding their breaths. After what seemed like an eternity, the hat announced its choice.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Their whole table erupted in excited cheers. Two identical red-haired boys behind them started chanting, "We've got Potter! We've got Potter!" as the young boy walked over to their table and nearly collapsed in his seat.

Yugi and Marik exchanged looks, still trying to figure out what was so special about this kid.


	5. Desiring Normal Classes

**Yu-Gi-Oh!  
Episode Nine and Three Quarters**

**CHAPTER FIVE – DESIRING NORMAL CLASSES**

Yugi lay stretched out on his back, staring up at the canopy of his four-poster bed. It was late, and he was dead tired, but he just could not get his eyes to stay closed to save his life. He was in a _magic_ school, somewhere in England, living in a castle with hundreds of other students, and tomorrow he would start training to become a _wizard!_ This was the stuff of dreams; fits of fancy little kids would dream of, until they hit the teenager years and would forget about them entirely – and he was _living _it!

He heard a rustling sound coming from the bed next to him, and poked his head through the curtains of his.

"Marik-kun?" he asked.

"Hai," was the muffled answer.

"You can't sleep, hunh?"

"Iie."

"Me neither."

"I figured," he replied sourly, poking his head out from behind his curtains. "I just can't believe this. I mean, my life has been pretty interesting and unusual up to this point, but I never imagined I would be going to England to attend a _magic _school!"

"It's unreal, isn't it?" Yugi asked, propping his head up with his hands. "I mean –"

"Is someone else awake?" came a hushed whisper from the other side of the room, cutting him off.

Yugi and Marik crawled out of bed and went toward the direction of the voice. Slightly visible due to the moonlight from the window he was sitting next to was Harry Potter, the boy everyone had made such a fuss about back at the Sorting Ceremony. The two boys sat down next to him, and Marik tried to say hello, but it came out in Egyptian. He sighed and repeated it in the right language. Yugi chuckled at the younger boy's perplexed expression at the mix up.

"You'll have to forgive us," he said. "English wasn't our first language."

"What country are you from?" Harry asked.

"I'm from Egypt," Marik answered, "but Yugi's from Japan."

"Yugi Mutou…" Harry began, a thoughtful look crossing his face. He gasped suddenly, as if remembering something. "I've seen pictures of you from my cousin's old magazines. You're that Duel Monsters Champion, the one that won the Duelist Kingdom and Battle City Tournaments."

Yugi blushed, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. Marik frowned, though.

"You keep up with muggle events?" he asked, trying to sound like he was used to calling non-magical people muggles. Harry just sheepishly looked at his feet.

"I thought I _was_ a muggle until I got my letter," he explained.

"But… from the way everyone reacted to you in the Hall… It didn't seem that way," Yugi replied. He looked at the two of them, suspicious.

"You're not from wizard families either, are you?" he asked. Busted, Marik and Yugi could only nod, embarrassed. Harry, however, seemed glad for it. "Everyone says I'm famous, because I defeated a dark wizard known as Voldemort when I was just a baby," he explained to them. "My parents died trying to protect me from him, but I survived somehow. No one knows how, though, nor do they know what became of Voldemort. At least, that's what I've been told. I don't remember what happened."

Marik looked at him sadly. "How can people coddle you for something you can't even remember doing? It must get annoying."

Harry nodded. "I just hope no one expects me to be better than everyone else. I really don't have the foggiest idea about magic. My aunt and uncle abhor the subject."

Yugi's face brightened suddenly, "Let's make a promise, Harry-kun. Since all three of us don't have a clue, lets promise to help each other out if we need it. Ne, Harry-kun?"

Harry smiled brightly as the three of them shook hands, sealing their promise.

-.oOOo.-

Classes started immediately after breakfast the next day, and as soon as Yugi, Harry, Marik, and another Gryffindor by the name of Ron Weasley tried to find their way to their first class, they knew they were going to be in trouble. As Bakura had mentioned on the train, the stairs had minds of their own, and liked to change where they led. What he had failed to mention was that some of the larger ones also had invisible steps, something Marik found out the hard way.

"Help!" he shouted, holding on to the step above the one he had fallen through for dear life. Harry and Ron, thankfully, managed to pull him back to safety. They continued on, making sure to test each step before they put their weight on it.

"What's our first class again?" Yugi asked, checking his watch for the time.

"History of Magic," Ron answered. "We don't have to worry about being late to that class. My brothers tell me Professor Binns teaches that class, and since he's a ghost, he won't give you a detention or anything, he'll just scowled you."

"Wait, he's a _ghost!"_ Marik exclaimed, stopping dead in his tracks. "There are _ghosts_ in this place!"

"Well, yeah," Ron answered, as if it were nothing.

"Um… Ron…" Harry began, and Ron winced.

"Oh, right, I'm sorry," he apologized. "I'm not used to having friends who didn't grow up with a wizard family."

"It's okay, Ron-kun," Yugi squeaked, looking around nervously for ghosts. "Just lets get to class before –"

Suddenly, something behind him made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. Before he could turn around and see what it was, an icy cold _something_ grabbed a hold of his nose.

"_GOT YOUR CONK!"_ came a shrill scream from behind him. Yugi fainted in shear terror as a little man with wicked narrow eyes and wearing flashy clothing appeared. He floated cross-legged in the air, clutching his stomach in mirth. He leaned over, cooing at the three boys that were still conscious.

"Ickle Firsties! Oh, what fun!"

The three boys screamed in fright before grabbing Yugi by his ankles and running for dear life, dragging the poor boy behind them up stairs and through the hallways. They did not stop running until they were outside the door for their history class and far away from the frightening ghost. Marik, Harry, and Ron leaned against the wall trying to regain their breath as Yugi came to. The shorter boy rubbed his head, wincing in pain as he felt several lumps forming.

"Why does it feel like I've been dragged up a flight of stairs?" he asked.

"Because you were," Ron answered.

"Brave and courageous," Marik muttered, helping Yugi stand up. _"Bullshit!_ That thing scared me half to death!"

"Let's hope Professor Binns isn't like that," Harry replied, opening the door to their class.

History of Magic turned out to be exceedingly boring even for Yugi, who had always liked any history class. Though the pain in his head from being dragged up the stairs distracted him, it was not nearly enough of a distraction to help him shut out Professor Binns' unending drone about Emeric the Evil and Uric the Oddball. Even the four of them coming in late had not stopped the ghost; no one sniggered at them for being late either, as most students – except for Hermione Granger, who was furiously scribbling notes – were fast asleep.

After what seemed like an eternity, the bell rang for the end of classes, and the people who were awake shook the ones that were not before quickly heading out. Yugi pulled out his course list, and the three other boys crowded over his shoulder to read what they had next.

"Charms, with Professor Flitwick on the fifth floor," he announced, folding the parchment back up and sticking it into a pocket on his robe.

"What floor are we on now?" Marik asked. Harry opened his mouth to answer, but a painting of a ballet dancer behind them beat him to it.

"You're on the seventh floor, dears," she said, curtsying to them.

"Thanks," Ron said as Marik and Yugi stared in shock. Him and Harry tugged the two foreign boys along, as they tried to figure out if they were hearing things or not.

-.oOOo.-

Their first week went by fast, and soon it was Friday… a day that the four boys would have rather done without. They had the afternoon off, and Harry had been invited down to Hagrid's hut and asked Marik, Yugi, and Ron to come with him. Of course, they had to survive double Potions with Slytherin house first, something that did not set well with a lot of the other Gryffindor students. To top it all off, the class was held in the dungeons, and was taught by what had to be the cruelest, most foul teacher any of them would ever encounter.

Professor Snape was a tall man, taller than even Seto, with greasy black hair and cold dark eyes. Unlike the other teachers, he wore nothing but black robes, giving him the appearance of some kind of oily gothic vampire from a cheesy horror flick. He never seemed to smile either, unless it was toward Draco, who had apparently become a teacher's pet as soon as he walked in the door.

He obviously did not like Harry either. Almost as soon as class started, Snape began quizzing him, asking him questions that he could not possibly answer. Marik glared at him each time he insulted his new friend, and when he took a point from Gryffindor because Harry talked back at him, it took every bit of will power that he had not to jump up from behind his desk and strangle the man.

"Abiru," he muttered under his breath. Snape snapped his head toward him.

"Gomennasai?" he responded, making both him and Yugi jump in surprise.

"Oh shit!" Marik exclaimed, getting several giggles from the rest of the class.

"Another five points from Gryffindor for your foul mouth, Mr. Ishitar," Snape replied.

Things did not get much better after that. After some note taking, they were split off into pairs and set to concoct a simple potion to cure boils. Harry and Yugi, and Ron and Marik were paired together, and they were doing just fine as far as they were concerned. For the two foreign boys, it was just like chemistry class back at Domino High School, only with a little magical tint to it. Snape, however, criticized them, displeased with every one except Draco.

One of the things the four boys had found out about their fellow Gryffindor classmates, was that both Neville Longbottom and Seamus Finnegan had a habit of being a bit of a klutz. The two of them had gotten paired together – which in itself was a disaster waiting to happen. Disaster did strike, too, when Neville had managed to melt Seamus' cauldron, their potion escaping out into the classroom. In a split second, everyone was standing on his or her stools, except for Neville, whose arms and legs had burst out in ugly red boils. Snape snarled at him before ordering him to the hospital wing, and then turning his malice on Harry and Yugi, who had been working next to them.

"Another point from Gryffindor, Mr. Potter," Snape sneered, "for not warning him about the consequences of his mistake."

Harry was about to retort for the unfair point taking, when Yugi slapped a hand over his mouth.

"Don't tempt fate, Harry-kun," he whispered.

Meanwhile, Marik was positively fuming, and was showing it by the tight grip he had on his Millennium Rod under the table. Ron looked down at it, confused.

"What do you plan on doing with that thing?" he whispered. Marik smiled evilly.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe send him to the Shadow Realm for a spell," he replied. "Maybe that'll teach _him_ a lesson, you think?"

Ron stared at him, confused. "I don't know what you're talking about, but you better not do it. You'll likely get a detention."

Marik's smile broadened, but he put the Rod back in its hiding place. "Ron-kun, I'd take a detention any day just to see a few seconds of this jerk wiggling in the Shadow Realm."

-.oOOo.-

Yugi groaned into his pillow, hardly believing the horrible day they had had. Professor Snape was positively a total _nightmare,_ and to make it worse, because of him they had managed to loose seven points for their house in one day – _one day!_ He had never felt so miserable in his entire life.

_Don't let it bother you, aibou,_ Yami Yugi said within his mind. _You've had teachers like that before._

_Not _nearly_ as bad as Snape, Yami Yugi-kun,_ Yugi replied, flipping over onto his back. There was a long pause, as his other half seemed to be considering something.

_You know…_ he said, _we're supposed to be the guardians of the Yami-no-Games now. That doesn't mean we can't _play_ a Yami-no-Game for a good reason…_

Yugi smiled. _Yami Yugi-kun, you're the best!_

.oOOo.

Professor Snape left the dungeons late that night, having to deal with the mess that the Neville boy had left, grading papers, and making sure that all the points he had deduced and added that day were counted. He locked the door to his classroom, and was about the head down the hallway to his quarters when a vaguely familiar voice stopped him in his tracks.

"Professor Snape…"

Snape whirled around, trying to find the source of the voice. Something down the hall was glowing… something triangular…

"Show yourself!" he demanded.

The person chuckled. "As you wish," he said. The person stepped out of the shadows to reveal Yugi Mutou, only he was quite different from when he was in class. He was taller, and his odd hair was even stranger, with streaks of his blonde bangs pointing up along with the black and raspberry red. His eyes were narrower, and he had a cocky, confident grin on his face.

Uh-oh… Dumbledore had warned him about this, but he had refused to believe it at the time.

"Professor Snape, you and your cruel ways have trespassed on the souls of myself and my friends," Yami Yugi announced. "For this transgression, you have to play a game with me…

"A Yami-no-Game."


	6. Broomsticks and Cards

**Yu-Gi-Oh!  
Episode Nine and Three Quarters**

**CHAPTER SIX – BROOMSTICKS AND CARDS**

Professor Snape dropped his wand and fell to his knees, a look of utter terror and shear disbelief etched onto his thin face. Yami Yugi stood above him, triumphant in the little game, his Millennium Puzzle glowing brightly as he returned his golden wand to his robe pocket. Snape glared at him angrily, retaking up his wand and ready to cast a powerful hex on the boy that would dare to mock him. An eye appeared on Yami Yugi's forehead, however… the reverse symbol of the Eye of Ra: the Eye of the Wisdom of Darkness. Its appearance stopped the professor in his tracks.

"A Yami-no-Game reveals man's true nature," Yami Yugi said in a cold, unfeeling voice. "You, Professor Snape, delight in seeing the suffering of your students. As your punishment, you will feel their pain ten fold!" He pointed a finger at him, and the Eye of the Wisdom of Darkness detached itself from his forehead and lanced out at Snape.

"Batsu-game! Illusion of the Heartbroken!"

Whatever counter curse Snape tried to cast, it did not work at all, and soon the normally cold and cruel Potion's Master was curled up on the floor sniveling like a coward. Yami Yugi smirked and was about to turn to leave, but something stopped him. After a moment's deliberation, he hauled Snape up and began dragging the man down the corridor to his quarters. Although he deserved it, he would spare the man the embarrassment of being seen by other people in the state he was in.

-.oOOo.-

A few weeks later, Yugi was still walking with a spring to his step, and only Slytherin house seemed to miss Professor Snape at all. Ron's theory was that Dumbledore had heard how badly the first week went, and sacked him. Only Marik had an idea of what really happened, and pulled Yugi over to the side one day before going to Charms class to confirm it.

"Okay, what'd you do to Snape?" he asked.

"_I_ didn't do anything," Yugi replied, a bit of out of character slyness in his voice. Marik rolled his eyes.

"Always so technical," he responded dryly. "Okay, what'd Yami Yugi do to him, and how come you didn't let me help?"

Yugi was about to reply, when Mr. Filch and his annoying pet cat, Mrs. Norris, approached them from what seemed like out of nowhere.

"Now, now, children," he sneered. "We aren't going to be late to class, now are we?"

"No sir!" Marik squeaked before grabbing Yugi's wrist and hauling him down the hallway.

Filch managed to scare the both of them half to death their first week by suddenly showing up behind them when they were late for Transfiguration and trying to figure out what floor they were on so they could get to the class. He was the caretaker of the school, so he knew every hidden passageway and had an annoying habit of appearing when he was least wanted. His cat, Mrs. Norris, as almost as bad as he was, and had the strangest blood-red eyes that were not a pleasant thing to see when you were walking down a dark corridor.

"I swear to God, Yugi-kun," Marik said as they entered their Charms class a few minutes later. "One of these days I'm going to give that cat a swift kick into the Shadow Realm."

They plopped down in their seats next to Harry and Ron, who both seemed rather gloomy that day.

"What's wrong, Harry-kun?" Yugi asked. The younger boy frowned.

"Didn't you see the post up in the common room?" he asked. "Flying lessons start tomorrow, and we're paired with Slytherin."

Marik groaned. "It figures. I always wanted to humiliate myself in front of that Malfoy jerk."

"Maybe we won't humiliate ourselves," Yugi pointed out. "I mean, how hard can it be to ride a broom?"

Ron rolled his eyes. "Always the optimist, hunh, Yugi?"

Yugi shrugged. "I'm just being truthful. It'll probably be just like riding a bike."

"What's a bike?"

Harry, Yugi, and Marik groaned.

-.oOOo.-

The next morning, the four boys were eagerly chomping down on breakfast before broom flying lessons, when the mail arrived. Harry hardly ever got any mail, unless it was from the grounds keeper, Hagrid. Yugi and Marik did not get much either, except for the occasional note from their friends and family. That day, however, a big parcel arrived for each of them. They managed to catch them before they fell into their food, and Yugi was the first one to tear his open. Inside was his Duel Disk and deck of Duel Monsters cards, as well as a little note in his grandfather's scrawl.

_Yugi,_

_I can't believe you forgot these! Did you honestly think  
you wouldn't use these? Anyway, I made sure everyone  
got theirs, and sent your friends Ron and Harry a Duel  
Disk and a starter deck with some boosters. Show them  
how to play, I'm sure they'll like it._

_Grandpa_

Yugi looked around to the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables to see that Seto and Bakura had also gotten a similar parcel. By that time, Marik, Harry, and Ron had also opened their parcels, and the two English boys were looking at their new cards in wonder. The Egyptian was already hovering over their shoulders, explaining the rules at a rapid fire pace.

"Tomorrow we should have a practice duel," he said. "There's no better way to learn how to duel than first hand experience, ne, Yugi-kun?"

"Hai!"

Marik wrapped an arm around Harry's shoulders, pointing to Yugi slyly. "You'd better be careful around him, though," he said. "You said so yourself, Harry-kun, he's the winner of the Duelist Kingdom and Battle City Tournaments. Nobody's been able to top him, and believe me, I've _tried." _He poked Harry in the chest. "Think of it like this: you're to the wizarding world as Yugi is to the dueling world. Absolutely famous."

Yugi was outright blushing all through Marik's speech. He hid his face in his hands, trying to conceal his embarrassment. The other three boys just laughed.

-.oOOo.-

Classes went by quickly that day, and soon Gryffindor house was marching out to the practice field where they would finally get their first chance to fly on a broom. Slytherin joined them soon after they arrived, Malfoy throwing Harry a quick scowl before their instructor, Madam Hooch, showed up.

Madam Hooch was a stout elderly woman with nearly pure white hair and hawk-like eyes. Despite this, she seemed kindly enough with her friendly, but stern, smile. She kind of reminded Yugi of a gym teacher.

"All right, everyone!" she announced. "Stand next to a broom. Quickly now."

The two groups of students stood next to a broom, facing each other. Marik looked down at his, remembering that Ron's twin brothers, Fred and George, said something about the school brooms being some of the worst. He did look like he got one of the bad ones, too, as many of the twigs were sticking out at strange angles.

"Now," Madam Hooch continued once everyone was settled, "put a hand over your broom and shout, 'up'!"

"_Up!"_

Yugi's and Harry's went to their hands right away, but they were one of the few brooms that did. Hermione's just kept rolling on the ground, while Neville's did not move at all. Ron's took two tries before it flew into his hand. Marik was at his third try when the broom handle swung up and cracked him on the head before flopping back down again. He rubbed his head, laughing in spite of it all, and shouted for the broom a fourth time. It flew into his hand properly that time.

Once everyone had a broom in hand, Madam Hooch showed everyone how to mount them. Yugi had a bit of difficulty because of his height, but both he and Harry were the only two students who managed to get it right on the first try.

"Are you sure you two haven't flown before?" she asked them, which of course, they had not.

Once everyone was settled, Madam Hooch went to the front of their line, out of the way. "Now, when I blow my whistle, you'll kick off from the ground hard, fly up a bit, and touch back down," she announced. "One… two…"

Neville, so nervous he was shaking, kicked off of the ground early. Madam Hooch shouted for him to come back down, but he was so scared that he could not control his broom. It shot straight up into the air, and he slid off the end, landing on the ground with a sickening thud. The broom, caught in a wind gust, floated off until it disappeared into the canopy of the Forbidden Forest.

The instructor raced to Neville right away, her face as white as her hair. She helped him sit up, and he let out a whimper of pain as she took hold of his arm.

"Oh, it's all right," she cooed softly. "It's just a broken wrist." She helped him stand up, before turning to the rest of the class. "Everyone is to stay with their feet firmly on the ground while I escort Mr. Longbottom to the Hospital Wing. If _any_ of you use your brooms you'll be out of this school faster than you can say 'Quidditch'."

She walked briskly back to the castle, holding onto Neville as he continued to whimper pathetically. Everyone dismounted their brooms, and Yugi and Marik flopped back on the grass.

"Man!" Marik complained as Ron and Harry sat down. "I was looking forward to flying! Way to go, Neville."

"I hope he'll be all right," Yugi said.

"He will be; Madam Hooch said it was just a broken wrist," Ron assured him. "The school nurse can handle something that simple."

Yugi frowned a bit. "I never thought I'd hear a broken bone being referred to as a simple thing."

Marik looked up at the sky a moment, then over to the shorter boy, a sly smile on his face. "Ne, Yugi-kun? Did you bring your Duel Disk?"

Yugi sat up a bit, grinning. "Maybe."

Marik jumped to his feet almost immediately. "Okay, then, Yugi-kun! I challenge you to a duel!"

"I accept!" Yugi exclaimed, jumping to his feet. The two of them took their Duel Disks out from underneath their robes and fitted them on their left wrists. Marik turned to Harry and Ron and winked.

"Watch closely, you two," he said as him and Yugi exchanged decks to shuffle. "There'll be a quiz."

Harry and Ron chuckled as Yugi and Marik shuffled each other's deck before handing them back. They turned away from each other and walked away, separating themselves far enough for the Duel Disk to work properly. They spun around once they were far enough, and bowed to one another in traditional Japanese manner, before ejecting the holographic pods and activating their Duel Disks.

"No Millennium Items and no crazy Yamis," Marik announced in Japanese, so only Yugi would understand him. "Just a straight duel."

"Hai," Yugi agreed, as they drew their starting hand of five cards. "Let's make it quick too, incase Madam Hooch comes back."

"Duel!"

Marik Ishitar: 4000  
Yugi Mutou: 4000

"I'll go first," Marik announced, drawing a card as part of his draw phase. He slapped a card down on the field horizontally and face up, and also placed another card face down in a magic/trap card slot. "I summon Revival Slime, sign of defense, and cover one card. End of turn!"

There were some gasps of surprise coming from the students as the formless blue blob that was Revival Slime appeared, as well as a face down card. Yugi smirked, both at their reaction and his friend's play.

"You're so predictable, Marik."

"Yeah, yeah, shut up and draw."

Yugi did so and looked down at his hand. A slow smile spread across his face as he looked back up at Marik. The Egyptian twitched slightly. Although Yugi did not look nearly as threatening with that look on his face as his other half did, he knew it meant that he was going to be in trouble. Yugi laid a card down on the field vertically and also placed a card face down in a magic/trap card slot.

"I summon Gazelle, sign of attack, and also cover a card," he announced. The beast, Gazelle, appeared before Yugi, as well as an image of a face down card. "End of turn!"

Marik's eyebrow twitched, not liking what was going on. He knew Yugi was not stupid, so he knew that the shorter boy knew that he had the trap card Defender Slime set face down on the field. That being the case, why was Yugi summoning monsters in attack mode, and not trying to get rid of the trap card? Also, what was that card that he set on the field? Was it a magic card or a trap card?

Marik shook his head, refusing to let him play mind games with him. He drew a card, and smirked at his catch.

"I play the magic card Slime Breeding Machine!" he shouted, sliding the card into a magic/trap card slot. The large machine appeared before him; his ticket for getting out the best card in his deck. Yugi, however, was unfazed by the appearance of the magic card. Instead, he just smiled.

"I see you still have Ra in your deck," he said. Marik returned the smile.

"Of course, just as you still have Osiris," he replied. He motioned to the other students, whom were all gawking at the display, even Malfoy. "May as well give them a good show, ne?"

"Hai," Yugi agreed. "Do you end your turn?"

"Yeah, go ahead."

Yugi drew a card as part of his draw phase, and inspected it before adding it to his hand. He took another card and placed it face up on the field.

"I summon Magnet Warrior Beta, sign of attack!" he shouted as the little magnet warrior appeared before him and next to Gazelle. "Marik, before I end my turn, I just want you to know that this is going to be the shortest match in Duel Monsters history."

Marik raised an eyebrow. What was that supposed to mean?

"End of turn!"

Marik drew a card, a frown on his face. In response to his drawing, the Slime Breeding Machine reacted, spitting out a small blue blob that acted as a Slime Token. He hardly paid any attention to it though, still pondering over what Yugi said.

Then realization hit him harder than a stone. Yugi's face down card! It was Mind Control! He probably planned on using it to gain control of Revival Slime. He gulped; that meant…! Marik frantically searched his hand cards, trying to find a solution that would save him. It was no use though; he could not summon low level monsters with the Slime Breeding Machine present, he did not have enough monsters on the field to summon Ra, did not have any cards that would enable him to gain control of Yugi's monsters, nor did he have any other level five or higher cards in his hand.

He was screwed.

"There's nothing I can do," he said regretfully. "End of turn."

Yugi nodded, indicating that he knew Marik understood his error. He drew before he slid a card into the magic/trap card slot.

"I activate the magic card, Pot of Greed, enabling me to draw two cards," he announced, drawing two cards. "And now, I reveal my face down card: Mind Control!"

A brain and a pair of hands appeared on the field. The hands grabbed Marik's Revival Slime and dragged it over to Yugi's side of the field. The shorter boy then held up one last card: the card that sealed Marik's fate the last time and would do so again.

"Revival Slime, Magnet Warrior Beta, and Gazelle! Offered as sacrifice to summon Saint Dragon, the God of Osiris, sign of attack!"

Yugi slapped the card onto his playing field. An image of the card appeared briefly before shooting up into the sky. Though there were no clouds, thunder crackled around him, slowly coming together to form a mammoth red dragon with two mouths, the top of which was clamped firmly shut while the bottom one let out a mighty roar.

A couple of the girls gasped in shock, Seamus fainted, and Malfoy and his goons let out a strange noise that sounded like a mix of a scream and a gasp. Harry and Ron were just staring up at the dragon, both of them impressed.

"Cool…" Ron muttered.

"I can't wait till tomorrow," Harry replied.

"Brace yourself, Marik!" Yugi shouted. "God of Osiris, attack! Thunder Force!"

Marik wrapped his arms protectively over his head as the Saint Dragon opened its primary mouth wide, gathering energy. It let loose the full fury of its Thunder Force attack on the only monster he had on the field: one lousy Slime Token with a meager attack of five hundred. Since Yugi was holding five cards in his hand, Osiris' attack power was five thousand, so it easily cut through the Slime Token and made his Life Point drop like a brick.

Marik Ishitar: 0  
Yugi Mutou: 4000

"Game over!" Yugi declared amongst the scattered applause from the students. He pressed a button on his Duel Disk, remotely deactivating his holographic pods. Marik took a moment to regain his bearings before doing the same. They approached each other then, and gave one another a high five.

"Good duel," Marik said. "A little too _fast,_ but still a good duel."

"Sorry about that, Marik-kun," Yugi said, kicking at the ground. "I've never had that good of a starting hand."

Marik waved the apology away. "Don't worry about it. It happens," he said dismissively. "Besides, I'll beat you one of these days."

Yugi smiled in spite of himself. "No offense, Marik-kun, but that's what Seto keeps saying."


	7. Halloween

**Yu-Gi-Oh!  
Episode Nine and Three Quarters**

**CHAPTER SEVEN – HALLOWEEN**

Harry and Ron turned out to be adept learners when it came to Duel Monsters. They spent their break period the next day out on the Hogwarts front lawn near Hagrid's house and the Forbidden Forest. Yugi and Marik explained the rules, and then hovered over the two English boys' shoulders as they squared off against each other. Ron ended up winning the first match, but Harry won the next two before they had to go back inside for supper.

The next week went by fast – with still no peep from Snape – and soon Gryffindor first years were faced with another double flying lesson with Slytherin. This one, unfortunately, went worse than the last time. Not only did Neville manage to hurt himself again, but also Malfoy had grabbed the klutzy boy's Remembrall and flew up high on his broom despite Madam Hooch's warnings. Harry not only managed to figure out how to fly his broom in two seconds, but also grabbed the nearly crystal clear Remembrall when the blonde boy threw it. The Gryffindors were celebrating his success when…

"_HARRY POTTER!"_

Everyone spun around to see a white-faced Professor McGonagall stomping across the grounds toward them. Malfoy, his feet back on the ground long ago, smirked at the teacher's appearance, as if he knew that Harry was a dead boy.

"_Never_ in all my years at Hogwarts…!" she began. Yugi jumped in front of Harry as she approached, protecting his friend.

"Iie, McGonagall-sensei!" he exclaimed. "It wasn't Harry-kun's fault!"

"Be _quiet, _Mr. Mutou," McGonagall snapped. "Come with me, Mr. Potter. _Now."_

-.oOOo.-

Marik, Yugi, and Ron were just leaving class to go to the Great Hall for supper, when the Weasley twins approached them, giddy with excitement. They started yammering on at a rapid fire pace, and it took the three of them yelling over the twins to get them to settle down.

"You guys won't believe it –" Fred began.

"– Harry Potter is –" George interrupted.

"– the new Gryffindor seeker!" they finished.

"No way!" Ron exclaimed.

"Um… what's…?" Yugi began.

"He is _so_ good too!" Fred exclaimed. "Wood took him through some practice runs and he caught the Snitch _every time!"_

"No way!" Ron cried again.

"Ano… nani…?" Marik began, speaking the wrong language.

"We haven't won since Charlie graduated, but this year we're gonna kick –"

"Excuse us!"

The three Weasleys clamped their mouths shut, looking over to Yugi and Marik as they stood before them with their hands on their hips.

"What the _hell_ are you people talking about!" Marik demanded.

"Quidditch," a voice said behind them. They turned to see Harry approaching them, a broad smile on his face. "It's a wizard's sport, kind of like football on broomsticks and with three different balls instead of just one."

"Yeah, and Harry's going to be the seeker," Fred cut in. "His job is to catch the Golden Snitch, a really tiny gold ball with wings that's really fast and damned impossible to see."

"Sugoi!" Yugi exclaimed. "Harry, you can catch it? This is amazing!"

Marik glowered slightly. "I'm kinda jealous. It sounds like something I'd be good at."

"Don't get down about it, Marik," George said. "You could always try out for replacement seeker next year. That'll give you time to get up money for a good broom, too."

Marik smiled, but it looked forced. Yugi frowned, and was about to say something when someone cleared their throat behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see an elderly man with a pure white beard long enough to tuck into his belt.

"Good evening, gentlemen," he said.

"Good evening, Professor Dumbledore," everyone but Yugi responded.

_So… this is Dumbledore, hunh?_ Yami Yugi asked from within his mind.

_Yeah, why?_ Yugi asked.

_Well, he is the one that Ojii-chan… urk!_

_Yami Yugi-kun…?_

_It's Dumbledore!_

Yugi looked directly at Dumbledore, to see that the elderly man had a gentle twinkle in his eyes. Could he hear his other half talking to him?

"Congratulations, Harry, on making the Gryffindor team," the headmaster said, switching his focus to the younger boy. "Lord knows Gryffindor needs some wins after their disastrous defeats last year."

The Weasley twins winced. "No kidding," they mumbled.

Dumbledore smiled. "Now, if you'll excuse me, gentlemen," he said, giving Yugi's shoulder a tight squeeze, "I have to speak with young Mr. Mutou for a moment. I'll send him to join you at supper when I'm done."

Yugi was so scared, he felt like even his hair had drained of all color. Harry and the others said goodbye (the Weasley twins wished him luck) before continuing on the way to the Great Hall. Yugi followed the headmaster as he directed him down the hall in the opposite direction, keeping a hand on his shoulder as if to prevent him from suddenly bolting away from him. After a long moment of silence, Dumbledore finally spoke.

"Yugi, is there anything you have to tell me about Professor Snape?"

In the corridors of his mind, the souls of Yugi and Yami Yugi looked at each other regretfully.

_Busted,_ they said at the same time.

_Let me deal with this, Yugi,_ Yami Yugi said. Before Yugi could say yes or no, they switched places in the real world, and Dumbledore took a step back. If he was surprised, he did not show it.

"Yes, I have plenty to say about Professor Snape," he replied, rather indignantly. "He's a stubborn git that won't let go of the darkness that still clings to his heart. If he would, he could have recovered ages ago."

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow in amusement. "I understand fully," he said. "However, we do need our Potions Master back. The seventh year students are suffering from his absence."

Yami Yugi glowered slightly. He did not like lifting a punishment when the person afflicted did not fully understand _why. _However, Dumbledore did have a point; he had punished Snape for making others suffer, but students were still suffering without him. He held up two fingers.

"Two conditions," he announced. "One, Snape stops harassing Harry. Harry didn't do anything to deserve his malice. Two –" He paused a moment, a bit of a smile creeping on to his face – "at least let Marik try out for replacement seeker. He is fifteen, after all."

Dumbledore nodded sagely, a gentle smile on his face. Yami Yugi snapped his fingers together, and the Millennium Puzzle glowed slightly, the only indication that anything had happened. Then, Yugi and his other half switched places again, and the shorter boy looked up at the headmaster.

"He's down in his room," he said. "You might want to go talk to him; he'll probably be a little confused." He was about to say more, when his stomach growled in protest. Yugi blushed. "Um… can I go to supper now?"

Dumbledore gave him leave, and Yugi took off back down the hallway.

-.oOOo.-

Both Harry and Marik came to the Great Hall the next morning giddy with excitement. They sat down next to Ron and Yugi, both of them talking a blue streak.

"Wood is letting me be replacement seeker _this year!"_ Marik exclaimed.

"You're good at it too," Harry added.

Marik sweatdropped. "Not that good. You're better, Harry-kun."

"That reminds me," Ron spoke up suddenly. "You're always calling us 'Harry-kun' or 'Ron-kun'. What's this 'kun' thing mean?"

Yugi giggled. "It doesn't really translate as anything," he explained. "It's just a way to show friendship."

Marik pulled an ink and quill, and a paper out from the back pocket of his jeans – his Charms homework. He started scribbling on the paper, annoyed, as he picked up where Yugi left off, "Yeah, notice we never call that asshole 'Malfoy-kun'. I'd never show that jerk any respect of any kind." He paused a moment. "Dammit, I hate this. I know English, Japanese, and Egyptian; but all these incantations are in Latin. Do they expect me to learn a _fourth_ language now?"

Hermione Granger, sitting on the bench next to Harry, fixed Marik with an annoyed look as she buttered up her breakfast roll.

"It's obvious what a lot of the incantations mean, Marik," she said. "You'd know that if you'd pay attention in class."

Marik glared back at her. "Well, some of us pay more attention to other things, like their friends," he replied. "You'd know that if you had any."

A hurt look crossed her face, before she got up and took off out of the Great Hall. Yugi stared at Marik, an annoyed look on his face.

"That wasn't very nice, Marik," he said, but Marik just shrugged.

"It's the truth though," he replied. "She pays so much attention to school work, she never pays attention to anyone else. Anyone she talks to, she manages to annoy them with her 'know-it-all' attitude. Like I said, it's the truth!"

-.oOOo.-

Snape was back for class that day, much to Harry's disappointment. However, instead of walking out of the class sulking like they did the first Friday, they were numb with shock, hardly believing what happened.

"He gave Gryffindor five points for your potion, Harry," Ron squeaked. Marik, in the meantime, was giving Yugi a suspicious look, still trying to figure out exactly what he had done to the professor.

"I wonder what came over him?" Harry asked rhetorically. "Wherever he went these past few weeks, it must have had quite an impact on him."

_If he only knew,_ Yami Yugi chuckled, pleased with how much Snape had changed. Harry frowned, looking around.

"Who said that?" he asked, and Yugi bit his lip as Marik glanced down at him.

_Keep it a little quieter, Yami Yugi-kun,_ he muttered in his mind. _Apparently, some wizards can hear us talking._

_Sorry._

After a moment, Harry shrugged and they continued on their way to the Great Hall for the Halloween feast and celebration. All around, live bats fluttered about or clung to the ceiling. The floating candles were replaced with floating Jack-'o-Lanterns, each one carved with a scarier face than the last. Food appeared on the tables as soon as everyone was settled. Harry was halfway through a drumstick when he noticed something.

"Hey, where's Hermione?" he asked.

"I heard that she's been in the bathroom all day, crying," Seamus said, before chomping down on a biscuit. Ron, Harry, and Yugi looked over to Marik, who was squirming uncomfortably. He finally shrugged, before going for a pumpkin pasty.

Suddenly, the door to the Great Hall burst open, and the lanky Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Quirrell, came running into the hall, shouting his head off.

"_Troll! In the dungeon!"_ he shouted. He got to about halfway down the hall before he stopped. "Thought you all like to know."

He fainted, and two seconds passed before a large uproar broke out through the Hall.

"_Quiet!"_ Dumbledore shouted, standing up from his seat. Everyone stopped dead in his or her tracks very fast. "Now, prefects, lead your houses to your dormitories immediately. Supper will be sent up shortly."

Ron's eldest brother, Percy, jumped up almost immediately, running to the head of the table and shouting for Gryffindor house to follow him. Marik started to follow the rest of his house, but he got to about halfway through the hallway when realization hit him.

Hermione did not know about the troll.

He fought with himself for a moment. It was not his fault that she had no friends, so why should he be responsible for telling the truth? Then again, it was his fault that he had been so rude about it, and if the troll found her… Marik kicked at the ground before slipping out of the Gryffindor line. One thing he missed about his darker, psychopathic self: he did not have a _conscience._

He headed down a deserted corridor, following it for a while before swinging around and heading toward the girls bathroom. He was about halfway there when the sound of quickening footsteps reached his ears. Stopping dead, he slipped into the shadows, afraid that a teacher or a prefect would spot him. Someone gripped his shoulder suddenly, and he nearly jumped up to the ceiling before swinging around to see a familiar mop of white hair behind him.

"Bakura-kun!" Marik exclaimed. "You scared me half to death!"

"And you scared me," Bakura protested. "Yami Bakura-kun saw you sneak out of the Gryffindor line and convinced me to follow you. What are you thinking? You could get yourself killed or expelled!"

"Look, this girl in my class, I kinda insulted her earlier, and she's been in the bathroom since, so she doesn't know about the troll," Marik explained quickly. "I just figured I'd go into the girl's bathroom, grab her, and haul her back up to the common room. No harm done."

Bakura blushed. "But, Marik-kun, it's called the _girl's_ bathroom for a reason."

"Ah, you wuss," Marik jibbed. "I swear, if your 'yami' wasn't around you'd –"

Bakura suddenly slapped a hand over his mouth. He was about to protest when the sound of large feet stomping down the hall met their ears and a foul smell reached their noses. They hid further in the shadows as a giant, humanoid creature with a dull expression on its tiny face and carrying a large club came thundering down the adjoining hallway at a snail's pace.

"How'd the troll get up here?" Bakura squeaked as it passed, horrified.

"I dunno, but it's –"

Marik was cut off by a high, shrill scream coming from where the troll disappeared.

"– heading to the girl's bathroom!" Marik finished. "Bakura-kun! Let's go!"

Bakura turned as white as his hair. "Uh… hang on a second…"

Marik turned to snap at him, but was cut off once again as Bakura suddenly fell over, as if he had been pushed. He got back to his feet almost immediately, a snarl on his face and his hair upturned slightly to look like devil horns.

"Damned coward," Yami Bakura growled. "Only when he's scared does he _let_ me take over."

Marik grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him down the hall. "Stuff it, tomb robber, we've got a girl to save, remember?"

They raced down the hallway and into the girl's bathroom – Yami Bakura mumbling about his cowardly hikari the whole way. Inside, Hermione was shrinking against the far wall, her face white with fright and looking like she was just shy of fainting. The troll was advancing on her, swinging its club as it approached. Yami Bakura tossed Marik an annoyed look.

"Got any bright ideas?" he snapped.

"Distract it!" Marik replied.

"With what!"

Marik glared at the tomb robber. "You're the one who can drag monsters out of the Shadow Realm, remember!"

Yami Bakura sniffed indignantly before pulling out his occult-based deck and holding up the first monster card he came upon.

"Headless Swordsman, sign of attack!"

A dark vortex materialized at their feet, and a full set of knightly armor – minus the head – holding a razor sharp sword appeared before them. The creature was hazy and translucent, as if it were not supposed to be in the "real world". The troll, distracted by their shouts, turned around just as the Headless Swordsman materialized. It advanced on the summoned monster, as Marik sneaked around the stupid beast and headed straight for Hermione.

He grabbed her arm and was about to pull her away when Yami Bakura let out a shout of surprise. Marik spun around to see that the troll had smashed through the Headless Swordsman and grabbed the tomb robber by the ankles. Now it was attempting to play some sort of piñata game, with Yami Bakura's crushed body as the prize.

"Do something you bloody Gravekeeper!" he shouted, narrowly dodging a swing of the troll's club.

Thinking quickly, Marik grabbed his wand out of his inner robe pocket and yelled out the first incantation that came to mind.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

The troll had just reared back to take another swing at Yami Bakura, but its club did not follow its hand. It stared at its hand stupidly as the club floated up, turned over, and landed squarely on its owner's pea-sized head. The troll teetered a bit before falling over with a wall trembling thud, sending the tomb robber crashing into Marik and Hermione and sending them to the floor. Marik stood back up, blowing over the tip of his wand as one would the barrel of a smoking gun.

"Consider that _another_ language mastered!" he exclaimed triumphantly. Hermione stood up also, clinging to his arm in fright.

"Is it dead?" she whimpered.

"Nah," he replied, "just passed out."

Bakura moaned as he sat up, back to his normal self. Marik looked over his shoulder at him. "You gonna be all right, Bakura-kun?"

"Hai," Bakura answered. "Don't you think we should get out of here?"

Marik glanced down at the troll's still inert body. "Yeah. I don't want to be around when it wakes up."

-.oOOo.-

Marik and Hermione raced up to the portrait of the fat lady in the pink dress that guarded the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. Bakura had already headed off to rejoin his own house, leaving them to travel back to theirs in total silence. Marik opened his mouth to say the password that would admit them, when she interrupted him.

"Thank you," she said. "Thank you for saving me."

Marik smiled; a bit of a lopsided, half-embarrassed, half-modest smile. "Think nothing of it," he replied. "And, I'm sorry for what I said to you earlier. I was out of line."

"No," she replied, "you were right. I don't have any friends. I've always tried hard to be better academically than everyone else because I was always… different."

"You're muggle-born too, hunh?" Marik asked. Hermione nodded. "Ah, don't let it get you down," he continued. "They're a lot of muggle-borns in this school with similar stories, so it's not like you're the only one. Besides, you got us, 'ya know? I think Yugi-kun and the other will agree with me when I say we'll be here for you." He mussed up her bushy brown hair playfully. "Just don't be such a snob all the time and you'll make friends easily enough."

Hermione giggled slightly, fixing her hair. "Well, I guess I owe you: for the troll and for the encouragement speech."

Marik rubbed the back of his neck. "Hey, help me with the Latin and we'll call it even, ne, Hermi-chan?"


	8. Something Wicked This Way Comes

**Yu-Gi-Oh!  
Episode Nine and Three Quarters**

**CHAPTER EIGHT – SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES**

The first Quidditch match of the season and the first full game Harry would play; under normal circumstances, Yugi would be in the stands cheering along with the rest of the school. Though he had been looking forward to seeing Harry's first match, he just could not get in the mood for it. After sitting in the Gryffindor common room for a while, he grabbed the homework he had been working on and made his way to the library.

Yugi liked the library quite a bit, especially when he absolutely needed to study. Madam Pince, the librarian, kept the large room so quiet, you could hear a pin drop. He plopped down at a table farthest from the front counter, getting a distrusting look from the librarian. She did not ask him why he was there, though, leaving him to his own thoughts.

No matter how hard he tried, however, Yugi could not concentrate on his work. He ended up staring out the nearby window, fingering the chain of his Millennium Puzzle. Something was bothering him, but he could not figure out what. He was about to force himself to do his homework when someone else caught his attention.

"Yugi? What are you doing here?"

Yugi spun around to see Seto standing behind him, a large leather-bound book in hand. The older boy went over and sat down across from him, uncharacteristic concern on his face.

"Shouldn't you be at the Quidditch match?" he asked. "I heard your friend, Harry, was playing."

Yugi stared at him, caught off guard. Who was this person and what did he do with Seto?

"What? Is there something on my face?"

"You're acting weird," Yugi stated. Seto blinked a moment, before an odd gentle smirk appeared on his face. He crossed his arms, before looking out the window himself.

"I think… I've finally found a way to break away from my adopted father," he declared.

Yugi bit back a gasp of surprise, remembering back to that time. It was when they had arrived at Kaiba Corporation's Dueling Tower as part of the Semi-Finals and Finals of the Battle City Tournament. The tower was in the middle of a man-made island, and surrounded by what could only be described as a garbage heap. When he asked the older boy what the trash was… The answer Seto gave him was one he would never, ever forget.

"_Ten years ago, Gonzarou Kaiba created Kaiba Corporation with advanced technology. It was the center of military business… This man-made island can be said to be the center of that business, and was created by it. Three years ago, the virtual technology I created was used by the military… My adopted father sold my soul to the military… After my adopted father died, I swore to use Kaiba Corporation's technology for games only, and rebuilt the company! I destroyed all the weapons and simulators my adopted father created. I wanted to rebuild Kaiba Corporation. This landfill is all that remains of the past…"_

"This place…" Seto continued, drawing Yugi's thoughts back to the present, "I've found the peace here I thought I'd find if I had beaten you at the Dueling Tower." He turned his gaze back at him, that cocky expression appearing on his face. "But don't think I've changed so much that I'd give you a break when dueling!"

Yugi sweatdropped. Now _that_ was the Seto he was used to.

"Anyway, what kind of 'peace' have you found?" Yugi asked, pushing his work to the side and resting his elbows on the edge of the table. Seto reached into his robe, pulling out a rectangular object, and setting it down between them. It was a dueling board, but unlike anything the younger boy had ever seen. It was rather crude, looking like it was still in the middle of being created. It had the typical eleven play spaces – five for monsters, five for magic/trap cards, and one for field magic – plus the normal spaces for the card deck, fusion deck, graveyard, and discard pile.

"You know Wizard's Chess?" Seto asked. Yugi nodded; Ron was always trying to get him to play, but the pieces moving on their own made him nervous. "This dueling board is going to be like that," he continued. "When I'm done, this dueling board is going to be able to take any Duel Monsters card, 'read' it like the Duel Disks, and bring to life a miniature of the monster, spell, or trap that's on the card."

A lopsided grin grew on Yugi's face. "You mean you're creating a gateway to the Shadow Realm on a playing board?"

Seto shook his head. "No way. Nothing that drastic," he answered. "I approached Professor Flitwick about the idea, and he likes it enough to help me with the Charm work. That little stunt you pulled off a couple Thursdays ago helped convince him a bit, I think."

Yugi giggled, and opened his mouth to say something when he felt a sudden pain deep inside of him. He clutched at his chest, gasping for air, feeling like he was being smashed from the inside out. Both Seto in the real world and Yami Yugi within his mind shouted to see if he was all right, but he could not hear them. All he could feel was the pain and the darkness it came from.

And then it was gone, almost as quickly as it had come, and now all he could hear was Seto's frantic shouts.

"I'm okay, I'm okay," Yugi insisted. "But… I think something bad is happening at the Quidditch field."

Seto pocketed the dueling board, and the two of them bolted out of library with Madam Pince shouting for them to slow down.

-.oOOo.-

Yugi and Seto managed to get to the Quidditch stadium in record time. The stadium was huge, and had four large sections, decorated in each of the house colors. They were not paying attention to the grandeur of the stadium, however; their attention was drawn to the action high above them. Someone was clinging to a broom, higher than could be healthy for a human.

Then, some sort of realization hit Yugi. That was Harry on that broom, and if he fell from that height, he would be crushed, despite the sandy floor below.

"Harry-kun!" Yugi shouted, even though he knew he would not be able to hear him. Seto, in the meantime, had put a pair of binoculars to his eyes. They must have been charmed or something, because he was able to zero in on the teachers box.

"It's Professors Snape and Quirrell," he announced. "They're both chanting something, but I can't tell what from here. One of them must be jinxing his broom though."

Yugi bit his lip. Snape would not _dare_ do anything to Harry, not after what him and Yami Yugi put him through, but then again, why would Quirrell do anything to him? Seto pocketed his binoculars and pulled out his wand before turning to his shorter companion.

"You know any good spells?" he asked.

"Um… how about 'Incendio'?"

"That'll work."

They raced to the entrance of the stadium and slipped under the stands, making their way as fast as they could to the teacher's box. As soon as they reached it, Seto (who had to crawl because of his height) went over to Snape while Yugi took Quirrell. He muttered an apology as he took out his wand and pointed it directly at the professor's purple robes.

"Incendio," he whispered. Flames shot out of his wand almost immediately, setting Quirrell's robes on fire. Yugi took off as quickly as possible, with Seto following soon after. They heard someone shout "fire" just as they left the teacher's box, and knew they had succeeded.

Yugi and Seto crawled back to the stadium entrance as fast as they could. Finally emerging from under the stands, they saw that Harry had regained control of his broom and was speeding toward the ground when he clapped his hands over his mouth like he was going to be sick. He tumbled off of his broom and sat up in the cloud of sand he had kicked up, his cheeks bulging. He let out a horrible cough, and a small gold ball popped out and into his hands. Jumping to his feet, he held it up in the air in triumph.

"I did it!" Harry exclaimed. "I caught the Snitch!"

-.oOOo.-

All the houses – with the exception of Slytherin, who had lost because of Harry's stunt – were still celebrating the remarkable catch well into the afternoon. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Marik, Yugi, Bakura, and Seto had gone to Hagrid's house right after the game, however, concerned about the recent events.

"This is just weird," Marik began. "First the four of us –" he swept his arms about to indicate himself, Yugi, Seto, and Bakura – "get invited to join this school even though we live in Japan, and we still don't know _why_ we're supposed to be here. Then Yugi looks like he's going to have a heart attack just before either Snape or Quirrell try to jinx Harry's broom."

Harry glowered. "Yeah, and now Professor McGonagall is inspecting my Nimbus to make sure there's nothing wrong with it."

"Ah, don' yeh worry none, Harry," Hagrid assured him, pouring him some tea. "Yeh'll have yer broom back before the next match."

A sudden thoughtful look crossed the young boy's face. He exchanged looks with Ron before asking, "Hagrid, what's the three-headed dog doing in the forbidden corridor?"

Hagrid dropped his teapot, making Seto – the closest one to him – jump in surprise.

"What were yeh doin' in the forbidd'n corridor?" the giant man demanded. "It's forbidd'n fer a reason!"

"We noticed," Ron squeaked, obviously not happy with the memory.

"It wasn't our fault, Hagrid," Harry explained, ignoring the other boy's comment. "The two of us and Hermione; we got lost on our way to the common room one night, and Hermione used a spell to open up a locked door so we could hide from Filch, who was coming the other way. We didn't know it was the forbidden corridor until we turned around and… well, there it was."

Hagrid scratched his beard thoughtfully. "Eh, yeh were lucky to get out of there. Fluffy don't take kindly to people burstin' in on 'em like that."

Seto just stared at the giant man. "You named a three headed dog 'Fluffy'?" he asked in a deadpan voice.

"Well sure!" Hagrid exclaimed. "He wasn't nearly as much 'a a beast as Fang there growin' up."

He waved to where a black-furred mutt was reclining on an armchair. The dog looked at them before yawning lazily and rolling over. Everyone sweatdropped as Hagrid mumbled something about getting another teapot. Seto stood up as the giant went to his cupboard, looking like he had had enough for one day. He was about to leave when Yugi jumped up to join him. The shorter boy mumbled something the others could not hear, and Seto raised an eyebrow before nodding minutely. They left the hut together, and Marik blinked, confused by their behavior.

"Since when are _they_ so friendly with each other?" he asked. Bakura shrugged.

"Well, Kaiba has been acting strange lately. Hufflepuff has double Potions with Ravenclaw, and he always seemed distracted," he explained.

Marik smirked, crossing his arms behind his head as Hagrid returned with another teapot. "Maybe he's worried about his precious company. You know that guy; he never changes."

-.oOOo.-

Seto and Yugi were halfway back to the castle before either of them said a word to each other. Even then, it was the taller boy that spoke first.

"What makes you think that Dumbledore will even agree to see us?" he asked. "He's the headmaster, and likely to be busy."

"After a Quidditch match? I doubt it," Yugi replied. "Besides, Kaiba-kun, think about it. I felt a pain in my chest, like something was crushing me. If Harry-kun had fallen from that height, he would have been crushed. I don't think it was a coincidence!"

They had been speaking in Japanese, so when they entered the castle, they got some strange looks from passersby. There were not as many looks as there had been their first few weeks at the school, however; apparently most of their classmates got used to the fact that they had some foreign students attending. Seto and Yugi walked briskly through the halls anyway, not paying attention to anyone else.

"You know I don't believe in destiny or anything of the like," Seto replied sourly.

"You didn't believe in magic, either," Yugi countered. "Now look where you are."

He did not have a reply to that, and just grunted something unintelligible.

They did not know where to look for Professor Dumbledore, so they decided to ask the one person who most likely would know where he was: Professor McGonagall. The Deputy Headmistress was almost always in her classroom grading papers (Marik always complained that she assigned too much homework), so they made their way to the deserted corridor that housed the Transfiguration classroom. Seto looked inside the room through the glass and was about to announce that she was not there, when a voice behind them caught their attention.

"Oy, starfish-head!"

Yugi spun around to see Malfoy and his goons, Crabbe and Goyle, behind them. Seto turned as well, none too pleased by the sight of the younger boy.

"What do you want?" he snapped, annoyed.

"Was I talking to you?" Draco sneered, equally annoyed. He refocused his wrath on Yugi, who gulped at the look on the younger boy's face. "I bet you loved that today, didn't you? Your precious Scar-head winning with that overlarge mouth of his."

"You're the one with the big mouth, Malfoy!" Yugi returned. "You're only jealous because Harry-kun's better than you'll ever be!"

A sudden dark look crossed Malfoy's face, and before he knew it, Yugi was on the ground, his cheek red from where the younger boy had punched him. Crabbe and Goyle suddenly appeared above him, cracking their knuckles anxiously.

"I am _ten times_ better than Harry Potter!" Draco snapped. "You'd do well to remember that when looking at me!"

Yugi's eyes narrowed in an anger he hardly ever felt. Reaching inside himself, he tapped into the magic of the Millennium Puzzle, letting loose a burst of power that sent Crabbe and Goyle flying off of their feet. He stood back up as the two bullies recovered themselves, trying to figure out what happened.

"All I see is a spoiled _brat!"_ Yugi snapped. He reached to the Puzzle once again, ready to unleash his full power on him…

"Iie, Yugi-kun!"

Yugi jumped as Seto placed a hand on his shoulder. He looked up at the taller boy, confused by his suddenly intervention.

"But, Kaiba…!"

"Yugi, what does the other you tell you?"

Yugi paled at the mention of his other self. He had not even thought of asking for Yami Yugi's guidance in dealing with Malfoy, and almost let himself get out of control. He closed his eyes, retreating for a moment to the Soul Corridor that housed his body's Soul Doors. Yami Yugi was standing outside of his, an amused yet patronizing look on his face.

_Gomen, Yami Yugi-kun…_ Yugi began, but his darker half waved the apology away.

_It's all right, aibou,_ Yami Yugi replied. _Though I wouldn't mind using our full power on that Malfoy, it's too early to reveal how much we can do together. We don't even know our purpose here yet._

_I understand,_ Yugi responded, hanging his head in shame. His other half reached over and tilted it back up.

_There are other ways to get even with him, you know..._

In the real world, Yugi's mouth upturned into a smirk. Draco raised an eyebrow at the look on his face, not amused.

"What do you mean, 'the other you'?" he asked, sneering. "There's two of you? Like one isn't enough?"

The confident expression on Yugi's face did not even flicker. "Malfoy? How well do you know your Egyptian history?"

Malfoy frowned, annoyed by the change of topic. "Well enough. Whatever for?"

"Then you'll know of the tale of the Ancient Pharaoh and his five High Priests who saved the world from destruction five thousand years ago," Yugi answered.

"There's no such story!" Draco snapped, downright irritated now.

"Of course you'd say that," Yugi replied, shrugging. "The story of the Ancient Pharaoh was never written down, in hopes he and the evil he sealed away would be forgotten in the sands of time. Only the Gravekeepers, the guardians of the Pharaoh's tomb and the Millennium Items, knew of the tale and the danger that would surface if the evil imprisoned in the Items were ever released. But, time flows like a river, history repeats itself, and the Ancient Pharaoh was needed once again."

Seto took a step back as Yugi closed his eyes again; he knew what was coming. Draco took a step back as well, though not for the same reason. The Millennium Puzzle hanging from the chain around Yugi's neck had started to glow! A circle of power appeared on the floor under the young man before engulfing him in a sphere of light. Seto shielded his eyes against the glare; they were really going all out for this one!

When the light cleared, there was a taller boy standing in Yugi's place. Some locks of his blonde bangs were sticking up along with the rest of his hair, and when he opened his eyes they were narrower, no longer the wide puppy eyes he was known for. Malfoy and his goons stared in shock, and he smirked at their behavior.

"I am that pharaoh," Yami Yugi continued, "and I don't take kindly to people hurting my host body."

The Millennium Puzzle started glowing again, but before anything could happen, Malfoy and his bodyguards took off like a shot down the hallway, screaming the whole way. Yami Yugi laughed in spite of himself, the glow disappearing from the Puzzle as he turned to Seto. The taller boy had a smirk on his face that quickly turned into a frown.

"What's wrong?" Yami Yugi asked.

He pointed. "Your forehead…"

Yami Yugi's hand automatically flew to his forehead, where he felt something hard resting there. He went to the door of the Transfiguration classroom, and looked at his reflection in the glass. It was a crown there on his forehead, shining and gold, with the Eye of the Wisdom of Darkness in the center and two "fins" on either side. It was the crown he had worn in the past, when he was pharaoh, but…

"It's never appeared there before…" he muttered.

-.oOOo.-

Unable to locate Professors Dumbledore or McGonagall, Seto and Yugi (thankfully, when he took control of his body, the crown disappeared) retired to their common rooms for the night. The next day, Yugi and Marik walked to breakfast together, the shorter boy explaining in lavish detail what happened between him and Malfoy, and about the crown that had appeared on his other half's forehead. Marik was about to comment on it, when Bakura ran up to them, whiter than a ghost.

"Guys, something weird happened this morning," he stated.

"Well, what?" Yugi asked. "What happened?"

"I was getting ready for the day," Bakura began, switching to Japanese so only they could understand him, "when a scar appeared under my right eye." He used a finger to trace where the scar had been: one line going straight down from the eye, and two lines going across that one. "Yami Bakura-kun started freaking out as it disappeared," he continued. "He told me he had a scar like that back in Egypt."

Yugi looked down to his Puzzle. "Something odd is going on with the Sennen Items," he stated, speaking Japanese also. "Marik-kun, has anything happened to you?"

"Nope," Marik stated, shaking his head. "I'm the same as always."

As they were talking, a group of girls passed. One of them turned to look at Marik's back, and motioned her friends to look. They started giggling, and they ran away quickly as he turned around.

"What is with girls these days?" he asked rhetorically. Yugi laughed at his statement, but Bakura was too busy looking at his back as well… and the glowing spot under his robes.

"Marik, the Millennium Rod…!"

Marik looked over his shoulder and down, and saw the glowing spot under his robes. He took the Millennium Rod out, to see that is was shining with an odd light. He looked at Bakura and Yugi, a concerned look on his face.

"Of course," he said. "Nothing would happen to me. It's not my ancestor that's imprisoned in this thing!"

Yugi gulped. "Kaiba-kun!"

A boy passed them with a Ravenclaw crest on his robes, and Bakura grabbed him by the arm.

"Excuse me," he began. "Have you seen Seto Kaiba at all today?"

"Oh, you mean that tall kid?" the boy asked. "Yeah, he was getting ready in the morning when he suddenly ran out of the common room. He wouldn't tell us what was wrong; he hardly ever says anything. I think he might have gone to the boy's lavatory."

Bakura let the boy go, and the three of them raced off in the direction of the boy's bathroom as fast as they could. When they arrived, however, they only found a locked door. Yugi pounded on it.

"Kaiba-kun!" he shouted.

"Stand back," Marik said, taking out his wand. The two of them backed off as Marik pointed his wand at the lock. "Alohomora!"

The lock clicked, and the door swung open. Yugi raised an eyebrow.

"You learned that from Hermione, didn't you?" he asked. Marik only shrugged, and Bakura made a face.

"Marik-kun, you're fifteen, she's eleven," he stated.

"Your point?" Marik asked.

"Don't you think that's cradle robbing?"

"I don't know. Remind me to ask the king of thieves later."

"Enough you two," Yugi said, barreling into the boy's bathroom. They found Seto almost right away; he was on his knees and hunched over next to the line of sinks on the far wall, and his back was facing them.

"Kaiba-kun?" Bakura asked.

"Go away," came the muffled reply, as if he were gritting his teeth in pain.

Yugi bit his lip and walked up until he was directly behind the older boy. "Seto-kun, what's wrong?"

Seto suddenly whirled around, his face twisted up in a snarl and his eyes a lighter shade of blue than what was normal for him.

"Go away, you Ra-be-damned pharaoh!" he shouted, making Yugi take a step back in surprise. Seto's eyes suddenly returned to normal, and a shocked look on his face appeared before he turned away from them once again.

"Just go away," he said, the urgency in his voice apparent. Marik stepped forward, holding the Millennium Rod in his hands.

"Kaiba, listen to me," he began, talking slowly and smoothly. "This is happening because you're trying to fight against your destiny."

"There's no such thing as destiny!" Seto snarled through gritted teeth.

Marik was about to continue, when the taller boy suddenly fell the rest of the way to the floor and began convulsing wildly, his eyes rolling back into his head. Before they knew what they were doing, Bakura jumped on top of his legs, using his weight to keep them down, while Yugi tried to take hold of his arms. He was having difficulty because of his height, but thankfully Marik was able to grab one of Seto's arms and slapped the Millennium Rod into his hand. The convulsions stopped almost immediately and the Item's glow vanished. He leaned against Yugi, utterly exhausted.

"Are you all right, Kaiba-kun?" he asked, but only got an unintelligible grunt as an answer. Marik, in the meantime, began pacing as Bakura sat up again.

"What is going on?" the white haired boy demanded. "What is happening to us?"

Marik stopped pacing a moment, chewing on his lip in thought. "I think… that this is because we didn't fulfill the prophecy."

Yugi frowned. The prophecy was one handed down in the Gravekeeper family line, and stated, "When the Ancient Pharaoh regains his memory and the Chosen One uses the Key to open the Door to Darkness, the world shall end." Yami Yugi had already regained his memory. They had used the "Key" – Yami Yugi's real name – to open the Door to Darkness.

"But, Marik," Yugi began, "the only thing that didn't happen was the world ending. That would have been a bad thing… right?"

"Yugi-kun, there are other meanings behind the world ending," Marik said. Yugi and Bakura looked up at him, confused, but Seto understood what he meant.

"A change in time," he rasped.

Marik nodded. "The Door to Darkness leads directly to the Shadow Realm," he explained. "When Yugi-kun and the others opened it, it appeared right when Yami Yugi was performing the ceremony to seal himself, his priests, and the tomb robber into the Millennium Items and banish the Yami-no-Games. However, I believe that if Yami Yugi had thrown the Items in through the Door to Darkness, he would have been able to seal the Games that way, without sacrificing his life. If he had done that though…"

He trailed off, looking at Yugi. The shorter boy gulped, shaking at the thought.

"We would have never met," he finished in a small voice. "He knew… Yami Yugi-kun knew that he could have done that, but it would have meant that I would have never gotten to know him… him, or any of you… He… he didn't want me to be alone…"

Marik nodded again. "I can't blame him for his choice, but it puts us at a disadvantage," he said. "No one anticipated the pharaoh would refuse to send the Items to the Shadow Realm and change history. We – the Gravekeepers – have no idea what happens now."

Seto let out a weak, frustrated sigh. "Is there anything we do know?" he asked.

"Yes," Marik said. "Mutou Ojii-san said Dumbledore would send for us 'if the need arises'. Yugi-kun, you said that we weren't needed; that the danger had passed, but you were wrong…

"It's only just begun…"


	9. Be Careful What You Wish For

**Yu-Gi-Oh!  
Episode Nine and Three Quarters**

**CHAPTER NINE – BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR…**

It had taken some doing, but somehow Bakura and Marik managed to drag Seto to the hospital wing on their own. That left Yugi to finish doing what he had attempted to do yesterday night, and locate Dumbledore so he could get some answers. He approached Professor McGonagall's classroom and peered inside, grateful that she was in. He opened the door and went up to her desk, and she smiled as he approached.

"How might I help you today, Mr. Mutou?" she asked.

"Professor… I need to see Professor Dumbledore," he said in a rush before he lost his nerve. McGonagall frowned at him, a distrusting look on her face.

"Is it important?"

Yugi fidgeted slightly. "Ma'am, it's about why I'm here."

Her frown deepened, but she stood up and led him back out into the hallway. They walked along in silence, and Yugi was trying to keep track of what statues or paintings they passed as so he would be able to retrace his steps, but he quickly found himself getting confused and abandoned the effort. After a long time, they approached a small alcove where a large statue of a phoenix stood, its wings wrapped around so it would fit in the space. McGonagall motioned for him to step inside, and he did so, looking back at her in confusion.

"Lemon drop!" she shouted. The statue came to life almost immediately, spinning slowly to reveal a flight of spiral stairs leading up like an escalator. Yugi held onto the statue, momentarily caught off guard.

"Arigato, McGonagall-sensei!" he shouted before she disappeared from his sight. He raised his eyes to his destination, and saw another opening not all that far above him. The statue/escalator came to a gentle rest at the opening, and Yugi stepped out into the headmaster's office.

Whatever he had thought the office would look like was instantly dashed by what he saw. Bookshelves filled to the brim took up most of the wall space in the room, and the areas of the wall that were not taken up by books were littered with paintings, most of which were empty at the moment. The desk looked like his own desk at home: cluttered, and that was being nice about it. Other than that, there was not much else of interest in the room except for two other things: the Sorting Hat sitting up on the top of a bookshelf, snoring slightly, and a large bird with brilliant red and gold plumage resting on a perch next to the headmaster's desk.

The bird let out a gentle note as Yugi approached, fascinated.

"Sugoi!" he exclaimed, stopping just before the animal. Yami Yugi suddenly appeared next to him, slightly faded as always, his hands in his pockets.

"It's a phoenix," he told his partner. "They're symbols of death and rebirth."

"Nani?" Yugi asked, managing to tear his attention away from the bird to look up at his other half.

"When a phoenix dies," Yami Yugi explained, "they burst into flames and then are reborn from the ashes, and in such a manner, they continue to live for eternity." He smirked. "Just ask Marik. The people of Egypt were strong believers of this. That's why you'll often find pictures of phoenixes on sarcophaguses."

Yugi turned back to the bird. It cooed at him softly as he reached out to stroke its head. The creature was warm to the touch, like an oven when it had been on for a while.

"She certainly is beautiful," he said.

"Yes, _he_ is quite a remarkable creature."

Both Yugis looked up to see Professor Dumbledore leaning over the railing of the staircase above them, a gentle smile on his face. Yugi took his hand away from the phoenix, a bit embarrassed that he had been caught poking around instead of waiting for the headmaster to appear.

"I-I-I'm sorry, Professor…" he stammered, backing up.

"No, it's a common mistake to make," Dumbledore assured him, misinterpreting his meaning.

"I-I mean –"

"And that's all right as well," he interrupted, coming down from the stairs to sit at his desk. "When one is confronted by wonderful and mysterious things, one cannot help but be curious."

Dumbledore waved for them to sit, and they did so as the phoenix fluttered over to sit on his master's shoulder. He folded his hands together at his desk, a gentle yet concerned look on his face.

"Now, as I understand it, young Yugi, you're concerned with your reason for being here?" he asked. Both of them nodded. "I'm sure, then, you've already realized you did not fulfill the prophecy as ordained by the Gravekeepers."

Yugi opened his mouth to say something, but Yami Yugi beat him to it, "If you're saying I made a mistake, I don't care. Fulfilling the prophecy meant changing everything that had ever happened to my hikari, and I refuse to let him live his life alone."

Dumbledore frowned slightly. "But do you know for sure that he would have?"

Yami Yugi tried to talk back, but thought better of it, clamping his mouth shut and casting a regretful look to his partner. Truth was, he had not really known for sure if Yugi's life would have been all that different, but he was so afraid that it would have been that he could not bring himself to leave him alone. Yugi looked back up at him, his wide eyes saying that he was grateful for his choice, and he smiled.

"I'm not saying that you made the wrong choice," Dumbledore continued, drawing their attention back to him. "It is our choices that make us who we are. By choosing to stay with Yugi, you made yourself his protector. However, because of this choice, your story is not over yet."

"That's why you called us to this school?" Yugi asked. "But, what is it that we're needed for?"

Unfortunately, Dumbledore just shook his head. "I am the wrong person to ask," he said, a nostalgic look appearing on his face. "A man by the name of Joseph Campbell could have answered that question. The most brilliant muggle I ever met; he was a sort of a modern day philosopher, if you can picture such a thing. Yes, he traveled the world studying the legends of different peoples, mostly focusing on the heroes in those tales."

He smiled gently, his gaze flicking back and forth between the two of them. "One of the many things he was fond of saying was, 'Furthermore, we have not even to risk the Adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us'."

-.oOOo.-

_The High Priest entered what remained of the Temple of the Tablets after the tomb robber's assault. He stared up at the altar in the center of the ruins, his eyes tired from grief, and his arms burdened with the reason for that grief. The only three tablets that survived the tomb robber's anger stared back down at him and the pale woman in his arms, as if mocking his loss. He fell to his knees before the tablets and held up the golden rod clenched in his fist… a golden rod with the Eye of the Wisdom of Darkness on it._

"_Almighty Gods!" he shouted. "If you have any mercy within yourselves, let her Kaa live on with you! Let her sacrifice not be in vain!"_

_Nothing happened, and the High Priest bowed his head in failure. He held the woman close to his chest, looking deeply into her lifeless blue eyes. Suddenly, the ground beneath him shuddered, and his head snapped up as a blank tablet rose out of the debris at the base of the altar. Gradually, an image of a white dragon appeared on the stone, its mouth opened in a silent roar of rage. The High Priest stared up at the image, then back down to the woman in his arms._

"_For your sacrifice, this Kaa shall become my servant, and we shall seek vengeance together…"_

-.oOOo.-

Seto's eyes snapped open wide as he gasped in surprise. He looked around at his surroundings, almost expecting to see the crumbling temple and the altar with the three tablets on it. However, all he saw was the high ceiling and stained glass windows of the hospital wing, and a certain Egyptian snoring slightly in a chair next to his bed.

Marik let out a particularly loud snort, shifted his position, and muttered something about "that damned asshole" before going back to dreamland. Seto rolled his eyes and started to sit up in bed when he became aware of the fact that his right hand was holding onto something tightly. He looked down to see the Millennium Rod in his hand.

"_This is a kingdom where world peace is supported with the absolute power of the king who's become the living god… But, the time where us Priests, who became the Pharaoh's shadow and have hidden authority to protect the palace, is needed…"_

Seto winced and gripped his head in pain, shutting his ears and eyes from the memories that did not belong to him. He did not want to have anything to do with the past that Yami Yugi was from. As far as he was concerned, it did not have anything to do with him. He just played Duel Monsters in the modern world; he was just a duelist…

Just a duelist…

-.oOOo.-

November passed by in a blur, without further incidents from brooms or the Millennium Items, other than Seto refusing to take the Millennium Rod. Marik all but shoved the Item down his throat, however, threatening to get the Weasley twins to show him how to do the Curse of the Bogies so he could use it on him if he did not take it ("I am _not_ carting your heavy rear back down to the hospital wing again!" was his excuse but they all knew better).

Classes continued as always, and the lessons got harder. However, between Seto and Hermione helping out during study sessions, they were all doing okay. Marik stopped complaining about the Latin incantations, and was instead complaining about how he kept getting the four languages he knew mixed up. That complaint did not last long, however, as Yugi (who had developed a knack for Transfiguration) threaten to send him back to Japan as a matchbox if he did not stop it.

Sometime right before December, Bakura had found a stash of various ingredients from the potions room hidden under a loose floorboard under his bed. He gave the materials back to Professor Snape immediately, despite his other self threatening to send him to the Shadow Realm. At first, Snape was furious and was about to give him a detention, when Bakura explained who really stole the ingredients. The Potions Master paled before sending him on his way.

"It was weird," Bakura told Yugi, Marik, and Seto afterwards. "It was like he was afraid I'd let Yami Bakura-kun send him to the Shadow Realm or something."

Marik looked pointedly at Yugi, who just rubbed the back of his neck, a huge grin on his face.

The first snow fell shortly after that incident, and snowball fights and snowmen building took up Friday break periods. Marik was especially fond of it, as he had not had much of an opportunity to even see snow growing up. He and Harry always managed to end up soaked by the time they went in, though they did not mind it in the least.

Of course, cold snowy days also meant time next to a warm fire. The Weasley twins, Harry, and Ron caught Marik sitting in front of the fireplace in the common room one night, Hermione curled up next to him with her head resting in his lap. The results of that… well, lets just say they were not pretty.

"I would have killed them," Marik snarled after telling Yugi what had happened, wiping cream from his face and hair. "They're lucky I gave the Millennium Rod to Kaiba-kun. Screw the Shadow Realm, I would have just killed them."

Christmas approached, and a sign-up sheet was passed around for those who would need to stay at the school for the holiday. Yugi, Seto, Marik, and Bakura signed up right away, neither of them wanting to go through the hassle of having to take the train ride back to London and then a plane back to Japan. Harry and the Weasley brothers also signed up; the Weasleys had to because their parents were going to Romania to visit their elder brother Charlie for the holiday. Harry did not have to stay at the school, but he said he wanted to – he did not want to have to spend another depressing Christmas at his home on Privet Drive.

"I'm pretty sure all I'll hear from Uncle Vernon is how I'm a freak of nature," he said in Potions the Friday before break, measuring out powdered spine of lionfish.

"Don't let it bother you so much, Harry-kun," Yugi encouraged, stirring the contents of their cauldron. "You know that you're not. Hey, Marik-kun, pass the spider legs."

"Yugi-kun, how are you going to do your Christmas shopping this year?" Marik asked, handing over a small box with some spider legs poking over the edge.

"I sent Ojii-chan a list of things I wanted to get and told him to take it out of my allowance," Yugi explained, handing the box to Harry to take out what they needed. "He's been putting my allowance aside since we left for this country."

"Oh, so you should have stuff showing up soon, hunh?" Ron asked. Yugi raised an eyebrow.

"Hey, no jumping Panseru before he can give me everything to wrap," he warned. "I won't forgive you if you peek."

Yugi looked up from his potion a moment to see that Malfoy was glaring at Harry. Apparently, he was still sour at him for the win he had gotten against Slytherin. Yugi caught his attention and fingered a corner of the Millennium Puzzle, a smirk on his face. As if it were possible, the blonde boy paled, but managed to give him a dirty look before returning his attention to his potion. Harry noticed the look he had given his friend, though.

"Yugi, that reminds me," he began. "Malfoy's been spreading rumors that you're possessed by some kind of spirit or something."

Yugi just shrugged. "Ah, he's just blowing steam out of his mouth," he replied. He could hear both Marik and Yami Yugi bite back a snigger at that.

-.oOOo.-

The day to leave for the students who were not staying at the school came fast, and it was also the day that Seto was ready to test his magic Duel Monsters board. Yugi agreed to help with the test, and the two of them sat in the Great Hall with Marik, Ron, Bakura, and Harry watching. Everything was going fine, until Seto tried to use an effect monster whose special ability could only be activated by a flip summon. A puff of smoke appeared instead of the monster, accompanied by a loud bang that echoed through the Hall. Everyone jumped in surprise, and passing students gave them funny looks.

Yugi smiled weakly. "Well, at least it didn't explode…"

"Don't jinx it, Yugi," Ron commented as Seto sighed. The tall boy pulled out a piece of parchment and unrolled it, revealing the title "Problems" with a long list of scratched out items on it. He added "Flip Summon + Effect" to the bottom of the list as Hermione walked up to them, dragging her trunk behind her.

"Have a good holiday, everyone," she said warmly. "You will keep looking in the library while I'm gone, wont you?"

"Hunh?" Yugi asked as Seto put his parchment away and collected his cards.

"After you and Kaiba-kun left Hagrid's hut that time," Bakura began, "he let slip that whatever it is that three-headed dog is guarding was the business of Dumbledore and a man named Nicolas Flamel. We're trying to find out who this Flamel is, but we haven't had much luck."

"Whatever that dog is guarding," Harry picked up, "we know that either Snape or Quirrell or both of them want it."

"Anyway, Hermione, why don't you ask your parents who Flamel is?" Ron asked. "It should be safe to ask them."

Marik glared at him as Hermione giggled. "Yes, very safe. They're both dentists."

-.oOOo.-

Thanks to special permission from Dumbledore, and because there was next to no one left from their houses, Seto and Bakura were allowed to sleep in the Gryffindor tower with their friends during Christmas break. That led to some interesting mornings (which almost always began with Marik complaining that Seto took too long in the bath) and some even more interesting evenings (which almost always ended with everyone banging on the door to the bath, urging Bakura to get out). Christmas Eve finally came, and Harry went to bed that night looking forward to the food and fun he would have the next day, but not expecting to get anything. He woke up late the next morning to find everyone already awake and went downstairs to join them.

"Merry Christmas, Harry-kun!" Yugi greeted.

"It's about time!" Fred exclaimed. "I was going to send Ron's rat to wake you up."

"Knowing Scabbers, he would have fallen asleep halfway up the stairs," Ron replied sourly.

"Well, c'mon," George urged. "Come and open your presents!"

Harry blinked, caught off guard. "I've got presents?"

"What did you expect to get, road apples?" Seto asked, grabbing a package with blue and white wrapping from under the tree and lobbing it in his direction. "That's from me."

Harry stared at the present for a moment, before tearing off the wrapping and opening up the box that was revealed. Inside was a beautiful silver watch, obviously special made, with a picture of his favorite Duel Monster – Gemini Elf – on the face, as well as five packs of Duel Monsters boosters.

"Th-thank you," he stammered, slipping the watch onto his wrist as Seto handed out presents he had gotten for the others (except for the Weasley twins and Percy; he did not know them well enough). Each one had a watch with their favorite monster on it, as well as five booster packs.

Next they went to presents labeled "From Hermione". Most of them contained chocolate frogs or Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, but Marik's obviously contained something different, judging from the sudden blush that came to his cheeks. The others tried to get a peek inside the box, but he snapped it closed before anyone could get a good look, the red tint never leaving his face as he set it aside.

Ron blushed as Harry and Yugi each went for a large package in nondescript brown paper wrapping.

"Hey, Mum sent you Weasley sweaters!" Fred exclaimed, also going for one with his name on it.

"Weasley sweaters?" Yugi asked.

"Yeah," Ron glowered, opening one with his name on it. "Mum always makes us sweaters for Christmas. Mine's _always _maroon."

Everyone opened their "Weasley sweaters". The twins each got a blue one with their first initial on it; Percy's also had his first initial on his ("P for prefect!" Fred joked), but was a sort of brownish color. Seto's was also blue like the twins, but had hints of silver woven into it. Yugi got a purple one, Marik got a lavender one, and Harry got a green one, leaving them wondering if anyone had told Mrs. Weasley their eye colors. Lastly, Bakura got a white one, and while he was pulling it over his head, it was hard to tell where his hair ended and the sweater began.

"Wow, these are warm!" he exclaimed as George picked at the initial on his sweater.

"I don't know why Mum always has to put a letter on ours," he said. "I suppose she thinks we forget our names."

"Really," Fred chimed in. "We know we're called Gred and Forge."

Yugi giggled, reaching for a stack of presents still under the tree. "My gifts next!"

Everyone tore into the presents he had gotten them. Marik got a new pair of gold earrings ("Are you trying to tell me something?" he joked) as well as two booster packs. Bakura got booster packs as well, in addition to the latest action figure in a series he was collecting, but judging from the half elated, half wincing look on his face, Yami Bakura obviously disapproved. To Harry, Ron, and Seto went ten Duel Monsters booster packs a piece, for he had been at a loss as to what to get them, especially Seto. The twins got their own Duel Disk 's, as well as starter decks ("Finally! Something I can beat my brothers at!" Ron had exclaimed), and Percy received a book on Japanese Sorcery he had been interested in.

"Geeze, Yugi-kun," Marik said, reaching for the next set of packages under the tree. "What kind of allowance do you _get?"_

"You're asking this to someone who lives in a game store," Bakura pointed out.

"Good point," he replied, reading the Japanese scrawl two packages he had grabbed. "Lessee, to Otouto, from Onee-san. That would mine, and this one… from Otouto, to Onii-sama. Seto…!"

-.oOOo.-

Totally exhausted from the snow fights and merry making of the day, once Yugi hit his pillow he did not know anything else. That was, of course, until someone rudely shook his shoulder to wake him up. He sat up in bed, bleary-eyed, trying to find the culprit, but no one was there. He was about to flop back onto the bed, when suddenly Harry appeared as if from nowhere. Yugi nearly jumped out of his skin, not awake enough for people to be popping up unexpectedly.

"Harry-kun, what the…!"

"Yugi, you've got to come see this!" he hissed quietly, so as not to wake the others. Yugi stared at the silvery substance in his hand, watching as it sparkled slightly in the moonlight.

"What the heck is that thing?" he asked. Harry looked down at it as well.

"It's an invisibility cloak," he said, getting a suspicious look out of Yugi. "Someone left it on my pillow, with a note saying that it had belonged to my father. Now, will you c'mon?"

Yugi slipped out of bed and into his slippers. Harry tossed the invisibility cloak over them, and they disappeared from view immediately, though the shorter boy did not even know it until they passed a mirror, and nearly freaked out before Harry slapped a hand over his mouth.

"Just because we're invisible, doesn't mean we can't be heard," he warned.

They left the common room, alarming the fat lady in the pink dress, and made their way down the halls. It seemed to take an eternity, and Yugi almost insisted that they turn around and go back, when Harry pulled him into a half open door and closed it behind them gently before throwing off the cloak.

Yugi looked around; it was just a normal, unused classroom they had walked into, with one special exception. A mirror stood at the far corner of the room, almost touching the ceiling. It had a golden frame, and stood on two, claw-like feet. Up near the top of the mirror where the words: _Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi._

He gulped; that entire mumble jumble was the phrase "I show not your face but your hearts desire" spelled backwards with the spaces in the wrong places. Harry either did not figure it out, or did not care as he jumped before the mirror.

"Look," he said, pointing, "there's my parents!"

Yugi looked into the mirror under the younger boy's arm, but he did not see anything other than their reflections, and told him as much. He stepped away from the mirror, and pulled him before it.

"There, stand in front of it properly," he instructed. "Now do you see them?"

Yugi looked, and bit back a gasp. He did not see Harry's parents, but what he did see shocked him to the core. It was himself, dressed in the robes of the pharaoh, with the gleaming crown on his forehead. He stared at the image, trying to put two and two together. If the inverted words at the top meant anything, then the mirror showed people their desires – their hearts desires. If that was the case, then why was he seeing himself as the pharaoh? The only things he wanted were to stay with his other half and his friends, and to find out how his story was going to continue. No matter how much he focused on these things, however, his image did not change.

"Well, do you see them?" Harry asked, starting to get impatient.

"No. I don't see anything," Yugi lied. "Can we go back to the common room now?"


	10. The Philosopher's Stone

**Yu-Gi-Oh!  
Episode Nine and Three Quarters**

**CHAPTER TEN – THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE**

Hermione and the rest of the students that had left for break returned to the school just before term started once again. She was rather disappointed that they had not found out who Nicolas Flamel was. However, this disappointment was dispelled when Harry and Marik told everyone some rather horrible news in the common room one night: Professor Snape was refereeing the next Quidditch match.

"Don't play," she said. "Say you're sick."

"Pretend to break your leg," Yugi offered.

"_Really_ break your leg," Ron suggested.

"I can't do that," Harry objected. "It'll make me look like a coward in front of the other houses!"

"Harry-kun," Marik began, "Snape is one of the people who may have been jinxing your broom in the last match. What if he succeeds this time… or worse? Is not looking like a coward really worth your life?"

Harry was about to reply, when Neville stumbled into the common room, his legs plastered together by the Leg-Locker Curse. Everyone else in the room literally fell over laughing as Hermione jumped up to perform the counter curse. The boy's legs sprang apart immediately, and his plopped his rear down on the floor, a pathetically sad look on his face.

"What happened?" Ron asked as him and Harry joined Hermione.

"It was Malfoy," Neville sniffed. "He said he always wanted to try that on someone."

"Report him!" Hermione insisted. "You can't let him get away with that!"

Neville hung his head. "I don't want no more trouble."

Harry reached into his robe pocket and handed the boy the last of the chocolate frogs he had gotten from Hermione that Christmas. Meanwhile, Yugi and Marik had gone off to the side to talk to themselves where no one else could hear.

"Damn that Malfoy," Marik snarled. "Now I really do wish I hadn't given the Rod to Kaiba-kun. Hey, Bakura has two Millennium Items, you'd think he'd mind it if I borrowed one for a spell?"

"Bakura, no. Yami Bakura…" Yugi trailed off.

"Good point."

"Anyway," Yugi continued, holding up his Millennium Puzzle, "I'd teach Malfoy another lesson myself, but I just can't risk it. Though Dumbledore didn't seem to mind too much that we had cast a Batsu-Game on Snape, I don't want to incur his wrath if he minds us doing the same to a student. Besides, if anything happens to Malfoy, people might believe what he's been saying about me being possessed by a spirit, and that will put Yami Yugi-kun at risk."

Marik blew out a frustrated sigh. "So there's nothing we can do, hunh?"

Yugi was about to reply when Harry, Ron, and Hermione raced over to them, excited. Harry had one of those Famous Witch or Wizard cards clutched in his hands – cards that came packaged with chocolate frogs. He held it up, showing off a picture of Dumbledore.

"Look, I've found Nicolas Flamel!" he exclaimed in a hushed whisper. "Listen: 'Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in nineteen-forty-five, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, _and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel!"_

Hermione suddenly raced out of the room, leaving the four boys wondering what was up. She returned a few minutes later, lugging an enormous old book in her arms. Before they could ask her what she was so excited about, she was using Marik's back as a table, forcing him to bend over so she could easily open the book and flip through its pages.

"I can't believe I forgot about this," she exclaimed. "I checked this out of the library a few weeks ago for a bit of light reading."

"_Light?" _Marik stressed, grunting from the weight of the book, and wondering how a little eleven-year-old girl managed to lug it down the stairs. Hermione ignored him, however, as she located the page she had been searching for and pointed to it dramatically.

"Nicolas Flamel is the only known maker of _the Philosopher's Stone!"_

That did not quite have the effect she desired.

"The what?" Harry and Ron asked, with Marik trying to look over his shoulder at the book. She rolled her eyes and was about to explain it to them, when Yugi beat her too it.

"The Philosopher's Stone can transform any metal into gold," he said. "It also produces the Elixir of Life, which can make a person immortal."

Hermione stared at him, impressed. "Yugi, how'd you know that?"

Yugi smiled. "A friend told me."

Marik rolled his eyes. Translation: Yami Yugi was feeding him the information through their mind link. What a cheater. Suddenly, Hermione lifted the book off of his back. Caught off guard by the sudden change in weight, he lost his balance and toppled over face first, landing on the ground with a thud. Everyone sweatdropped, embarrassed by his antics.

"Um… Marik-kun…"

"Notta word, Yugi-kun," Marik replied.

"I wasn't," he responded. "I was just wondering what Jonouchi-kun would say to this."

_She's got him whipped,_ Yami Yugi answered, chuckling.

Yugi never had a harder time fighting back a laugh.

-.oOOo.-

The day of the Quidditch match against Hufflepuff arrived, and Harry was absolutely nervous at the thought of having to play a game with Snape refereeing. He had hardly heard a word of Wood's teamwork speech, as he was busy hoping he would not end up dead. When the time came for them to go out onto the field, Marik took a moment to pull him aside.

"Harry, let me go instead," he insisted. "I've gotten just as good as you, and Snape doesn't want _me_ dead."

"No, I can do this," Harry said, his pale face countermanding his words. He turned to join the rest of the team, as Marik pulled out his wand from his team robes.

"I'm very sorry about this, Harry-kun," he apologized.

Harry was about to ask him what he meant, when Marik flicked his wand and spoke some well-chosen words. At first, nothing happened. Then, Harry was forced to double over as a pain lanced though his midsection, starting from his stomach and spreading out. He clapped a hand over his mouth and managed to spare Marik a glare before running for the nearest bathroom. Marik, in the meantime, pocketed his wand, took his own Nimbus 2000 in hand, and headed off to join the rest of the team. Wood looked over at him as he approached, surprised.

"Where's Harry?" he asked.

"Something he ate this morning caught up with him quite suddenly," Marik replied. "He's currently worshiping the porcelain god, but he should be fine after it passes."

Wood sighed, frustrated by the sudden change. "All right, I'll tell you what I told Harry then," he said. "If we win this match, we'll overtake Slytherin in the house championship. With Snape refereeing, he'll look for any excuse to take points from Gryffindor, so you need to catch the snitch as quickly as possible."

Marik rolled his eyes. No wonder Harry had been so nervous. Between Snape possibly gunning for him and Wood's "encouragement" speech, he was surprised the younger boy was not _naturally_ sick to his stomach. Someone needed to tell him that it was just a game, not a life or death situation.

The Gryffindor left the locker room and entered the stadium amongst the cheers and boos of their fellow students. Along with Hufflepuff team on the other side, they took to the air almost immediately, performing a practice lap around the stadium before settling into their starting positions.

Meanwhile, up in the stands, Seto and Bakura had joined Ron, Hermione, and Yugi from their respective house seats. Seto handed Yugi his charmed binoculars.

"Look, Marik-kun is up there instead of Harry," he said. Shocked, Yugi put the binoculars to his face and looked up. Sure enough, there was Marik up there, hovering about in his effort to find the snitch.

"How'd he manage to convince Harry not to – ouch!"

Ron grabbed the back of his head and whirled on the person who had poked him. Malfoy and his bodyguards stood behind him, grinning devilishly.

"Oh, so sorry, Weasel," he smirked as he plopped down in the seats behind them. "Didn't see you there."

All of them managed to spare Malfoy a glare before turning back to the game as Snape awarded Hufflepuff a penalty point when one of the Weasley twins tried to hit a bludger at him. Hermione bit her lip, just as worried that Marik might end up hurt or worse as she had been about Harry.

"You know how I think they choose people for the Gryffindor team?" Malfoy asked a few minutes later, as Snape awarded Hufflepuff a penalty for no reason at all. "It's people they feel sorry for. You have Potter and Ishitar, who've got no parents, then you have the Weasleys, who've got no money. You should be on the team, Longbottom; you've got no brains."

Neville, sitting next to Ron, turned and gave Malfoy the most threatening glare he could muster, which was not much of anything really.

"I-I-I-I-I'm worth t-t-t-ten of you, Malfoy!" he stuttered.

Malfoy practically roared with laughter. "Longbottom, if brains were gold, you'd be poorer than Weasley, and that's saying something."

Yugi whirled on Malfoy, and for the briefest of moments, Yami Yugi appeared, superimposed over his hikari.

"Knock it off," the both of them snarled as Hermione tugged on his sleeve to get his attention. Yami Yugi disappeared and he turned around again, and Malfoy looked about in an effort to find someone who had seen the almost transformation, when the whole crowd gasped as one.

Out on the field, Marik pressed himself flat against his broom as he dived straight for the ground, trying to gain as much speed as possible before the Hufflepuff seeker realized what he was doing. There was only one problem though: Snape was right in the middle of his path.

"Outta the way, oban!" he shouted. Snape looked up in surprise, and managed to pull away enough so they missed each other by inches.

Marik continued streaking toward the ground, his arm stretched out in the direction of the fluttering snitch. He lunged for it, and let out a shout of triumph as his fingers closed around it, smashing one of the wings up against the ball portion of the tiny thing. His feeling of success did not last for long, however, as his previous action made him loose control of his broom, and his dive suddenly turned into to a death spiral. Still clutching the snitch for dear life, he let go of the Nimbus at the last possible second. Momentum sent him flying head over heals into the sand, finally coming to a skidding halt as his broom implanted itself nearly up to the seat.

"Marik!" he heard Hermione shout. He smirked, gasping for breath, as he held up the snitch.

"Marik Ishitar has caught the snitch!" the announcer, Lee Jordan, shouted, as if he could hardly believe it himself. Marik really could not believe what he did; he had actually caught the damned thing, and the match had only lasted a measly five minutes.

He managed to painfully sit up as his friends came running out onto the field. Hermione latched herself onto him almost immediately, hugging him fiercely.

"Marik! We were so worried!" she exclaimed.

"Ow, ow, ow…" he muttered, hugging her back as best as he could as the others as well as the members of the team crowded around him. Harry came out from the locker room as well, still holding onto his stomach and looking rather pale in the face.

"Absolutely _spectacular_ catch, Marik!" Wood exclaimed. "Harry, it's a shame you missed it. How're you feeling?"

"Better, a little…" Harry replied weakly as Snape landed. The Potions Master approached the group, a rather unpleasant look on his face.

"Mr. Ishitar," he began, "heat of the moment or not, I do not appreciate being called an 'oban'."

Marik sweatdropped as Yugi and Bakura stared at him in shock. Seto looked like he was biting the inside of his mouth, fighting desperately to keep his normally impassive expression on his face. Everyone else was confused.

"I don't get it," Ron began, "what's 'oban' mean?"

Seto finally gave up then, a huge smirk breaking out on his face. "Bitchy old woman," he answered. Now enlightened, everyone either stared at Marik or tried to stop themselves from laughing out loud as Snape spat on the ground angrily.

-.oOOo.-

Marik was still walking – painfully – with a spring in his step when he left the locker room alone later on that night to put his broom away in the broom shed. He could hardly believe what he had done that day. True, it had come at Harry's expense (he had to be taken to the hospital wing soon after the match, and as far as he knew, he was still there), but it was still a great accomplishment. He hung his broom up next to Harry's before closing the door to the shed and leaning against it, looking up at the sight of Hogwarts before him.

It was still a bit of a shock, attending a magic school, but somehow over the course of the months that had passed, he had gotten used to the odd happenings that occurred in nearly every class. Marik secretly hoped that maybe, just maybe, by becoming a great wizard he would be able to bring back the honor to his family name that Yami Marik had stolen from him when his darker self killed his father. That was the deepest desire of his heart and no one, not even that jerk Snape, could stop him.

As if on cue, a cloaked figure emerged from the castle. Marik hid behind the broom shed as the person looked about before taking off at a dead run for the forbidden forest. He bit his lip; students were not allowed in the forest – it was not called the _forbidden_ forest for nothing – but these were special circumstances. He reached inside the broom shed and took out his Nimbus again before flying into the forest after the person.

Marik kept to the lower canopy, his black robes hiding him rather well in the darkness. After a moment, he spotted Quirrell in his purple and lavender robes, and he landed on a sturdy branch just above him as the cloaked man approached. They started speaking to each other, and Marik strained desperately to hear.

"…d-don't know why you wanted t-t-to meet out h-here, Severus…"

"I thought we should keep this private," the cloaked man replied with a voice that could only be Snape's. Severus Snape; how fitting. "Student's are not to know about the Philosopher's Stone, after all."

Marik bit his lip in an effort to keep a gasp from escaping his mouth. Hermione was right, it _was_ the Philosopher's Stone that was hidden in the forbidden corridor.

"Have you found out how to get past that beast of Hagrid's yet?" Snap suddenly snapped, nearly making him fall of his branch in surprise.

"B-b-but Severus…!"

"You don't want me as your enemy, Quirrell," Snape warned, taking a menacing step toward the stuttering professor.

"I-I don't know…"

"You know perfectly well what I mean."

Something in the forest snarled suddenly, nearly making Marik fall out of the tree again. He managed to quietly steady himself in time to catch Snape saying, "…your little bit of hocus-pocus. I'm waiting."

"B-but I d-d-don't…"

"Very well," Snape interrupted, looking around as if knowing someone was watching them. "We'll have another little chat soon, when you've had time to think things over and decide where your loyalties lie."

With that said, Snape whirled about and left, leaving a shuddering Quirrell in his wake.

-.oOOo.-

Marik returned his broom to the shed as soon as Quirrell left before rushing back to the Gryffindor common room. He caught sight of his friends sitting around a large platter of cakes with the other members of the Quidditch team. Harry was looking at the cakes cautiously, as if he were afraid to eat them. Hermione waved him over as soon as he entered, but he shook his head, motioning for them to join him in a deserted corner of the room. They did so, and he quickly explained to them what he had seen in the forbidden forest in a hushed whisper.

"So, it really _is_ the Philosopher's Stone that Fluffy's guarding," Yugi replied, hardly believing it.

"And it's not just Fluffy that's guarding it," Hermione added. "There must be other enchantments that the professors placed around it to prevent its theft. Snape must know the other ones!"

"So that means Quirrell is our last defense against Snape," Harry said.

"The stone'll be gone by the end of the week," Ron replied dryly.


	11. The Tomb Robber, the Pharaoh, and the Hi...

**Yu-Gi-Oh!  
Episode Nine and Three Quarters**

**CHAPTER ELEVEN – THE TOMB ROBBER, THE PHARAOH, AND THE HIGH PRIEST**

There was a line of four large hourglasses in the main hall that led from the dormitories to the Great Hall, and they were used to keep score of the house points that the students received and lost for their respective house. Yugi and Marik passed by it every day when they went to breakfast, and they normally did not pay much attention to it. However, it did catch their eyes one day in late April when they were going to breakfast in the company of Seto and Bakura. Usually, they were neck and neck with Slytherin house, but somehow their points had taken a nosedive.

"How did you manage to loose a hundred and fifty points in one night?" Seto asked, frowning.

"It's gotta be some kind of mistake," Yugi insisted, tapping on the glass, as if it would help.

"You don't think it was the Weasley twins?" Bakura asked. "I heard rumors they were planning on stealing a toilet seat and sending it to their sister."

"It better have been a solid _gold_ toilet seat," Marik commented dryly, not pleased. Someone started laughing behind them, and they turned to see Malfoy, in the company of Crabbe and Goyle as usual.

"Oh, didn't you hear?" he asked mockingly. "Precious Potter, Granger, and Longbottom were caught wandering the halls at night. What a shame that is, all those points lost from Gryffindor."

"Uso!" Seto shouted, looking like he was going to hit him.

"You're lying!" Yugi declared. Malfoy just sneered though, turning his attention to Marik.

"I never thought I'd say this, but I wish I had had one of those muggle cameras," he said. "I would have loved to freeze the look of absolute horror that was on Granger's face when McGonagall told her she would have to serve detention."

Yugi, Seto, and Bakura barely managed to grab a hold of the Egyptian as he lunged for the stuck up blonde boy, intent on beating the living daylights out of him. Malfoy just laughed and started to make his way to the Great Hall.

"Hiretsukan!" he snarled after him, making the younger boy whirl around, a smug look on his face.

"I happen to know what that word means," he began, "and I assure you that I come from the finest pedigree of witches and wizards around… unlike the _mutts _I see before me!"

Even Bakura managed to give Malfoy's retreating back a dirty look. After he disappeared into the Great Hall, Marik shrugged the others off of him, adjusting his robes.

"Let's make a bet, ne?" he asked in Japanese. "First person to cast a Batsu-Game on that jerk gets a day at the arcade once we get back to Japan, my treat."

"Don't tempt us," Yugi and Bakura said at the same time. Seto just grunted, not amused.

-.oOOo.-

A few weeks later, their little group was all together at the library, studying for the finals that would be coming in seven weeks time. However, the atmosphere was grim, as both Harry and Hermione had detention that night, along with Neville and Malfoy (who had failed to mention that he had also gotten caught out of bed). After about an hour into the study session, Seto closed his book and looked at everyone.

"Look , we're not getting very far here," he stated. "It's Friday and we're on our break anyway. Let's call it a day and go outside."

Hermione was a little reluctant, of course, but majority vote beat her out. They gathered their study supplies and went outside into the warm spring weather. They walked toward the lake, and Marik stretched his arms up toward the sky before wrapping one around Hermione's shoulders, trying to cheer her up.

"Aw, cheer up, Hermi-chan," he urged. "So you got caught out of bed after hours. You had a good excuse! You were getting rid of a dragon!"

"Yeah, but we can't tell anybody that, or Hagrid will loose his job," Harry replied reluctantly, skipping a rock on the lake.

"Well, at least Malfoy got a detention along with you," Yugi said, kneeling down next to him. "Maybe that'll teach him not to strut around like he owns the place."

"Don't count on it, Yugi-kun," Seto replied sourly, sitting on the grass.

Ron pounded a fist into his open palm, frustrated. "If only we could go to Dumbledore and tell him about what Snape plans to do."

"But we've got no proof!" Bakura exclaimed. "Even if he did believe us, all Snape would have to say is that he was never in the forbidden forest that night, and we're done for! Professor Quirrell's too scared to back us up, and without him, we can't discredit Snape."

Ron jumped at that. "Maybe we could convince him! Maybe if we assure him Dumbledore will protect him, he'll back us up."

Harry shook his head. "No," he stated, "no more three-headed dogs, no more Stones, no more adventures. We've gotten into enough trouble, and Gryffindor has suffered for it. No more."

With that, he walked off toward the castle, ignoring the others as they called after him. Yugi looked after him sadly, before turning his thoughts inward, to the Soul Corridor where Yami Yugi was waiting for him. He pounded on the wall as he approached, frustrated.

_I wish there was something I could do!_ he exclaimed. Yami Yugi just shook his head, however.

_There isn't anything we can do, _he explained. _Harry's lost his fighting spirit. It's the same as what happened with Yami-no-Kamen and Hikari-no-Kamen back in Battle City. He no longer has the will to follow his own desires, much less the desires of others._

Yugi was about to say something more, when he paused a moment, considering.

_Yami Yugi-kun?_

_Hum?_

_That mirror that Harry found at Christmas, the one that shows people their desires._

_What about it?_

_It kept showing me as Pharaoh._

Yami Yugi did not have a response to that, but the stony look that he only got on his face when he was hiding something appeared.

_But I don't understand it,_ Yugi continued, trying to figure out what his other half was hiding. _I don't want to be the pharaoh; you have already taken up that job. All I want is to stay with you and our friends. This is my one true wish, even though the mirror refused to show it, and to fulfill that wish, I feel I have to help Harry get his fighting spirit back!_

Yami Yugi blinked, caught off guard by his partner's show of determination. After a moment, he smiled at him, quietly pleased.

_I have a feeling you will, aibou,_ he replied.

-.oOOo.-

That night, Yugi could not get to sleep no matter how hard he tried. In the next bed over, he could hear Marik snoring softly and somewhere there was a cat purring – probably Rishid. After a moment of tossing and turning, he slipped out of bed and grabbed the Millennium Puzzle from its resting place on his nightstand. He padded down the stairs to the deserted common room, sat down in one of the large armchairs next to the fire, and placed the Puzzle in the chair next to him. Yami Yugi appeared almost immediately, his legs folded up in the chair Indian-style.

"A yen for your thoughts, hikari?" he asked. Yugi smirked slightly.

"If you want my thoughts, you're going to have to pay more than that," he replied, getting a chuckle out of his other half. Yugi was not amused however, and the laughter quickly died.

"Aibou, what's wrong?" Yami Yugi asked, concerned.

Yugi shook his head, standing up and pacing before his other half. "I don't know, that's the problem," he answered truthfully. "The thing with the mirror still bothers me, but now, I've got this feeling of dread inside. It's kind of like when Harry nearly fell off of his broom, but it doesn't hurt this time." He paused a moment, before turning to Yami Yugi. "Is it possible that Harry-kun could be tied to the Millennium Items?"

A thoughtful look crossed the pharaoh's face. "I don't see _how._ He can't be one chosen by the Items; they all already have owners –"

"But do we know that for sure?" Yugi interrupted. "I mean, we thought that Marik was the holder of the Millennium Rod for the longest time, until it turned out that Seto was the one that was chosen by it right in the middle of his duel with Isis."

He was about to say more, when the Millennium Puzzle starting glowing on its own. Yugi reached through his other self to pick up the Item, and held it in his hands, as if trying to understand an unheard answer to a question unspoken. After a moment, he slipped the Puzzle's chain around his neck, and headed for the common room exit.

"Aibou, no!" Yami Yugi exclaimed. "Gryffindor can't afford to loose anymore points if you're caught."

Yugi turned back to him, a pleading look on his face. "But can't you feel it, Yami Yugi-kun?" he asked. "Harry's really in trouble this time. Please tell me you can feel it too."

Yami Yugi closed his eyes and nodded, though he did not like admitting it. His hikari was risking a lot, going out on his own with no invisibility cloak and no way to defend himself against whatever it was that Harry was confronting as they spoke.

"Aibou, allow me to take over," he requested. "I'll protect you."

Yugi smiled happily and nodded, and Yami Yugi disappeared within the Puzzle. After a moment, he reappeared once again, this time in control of his partner's body. Without a second thought, he slipped out of the common room and stuck to the shadows and side corridors as he made his way down to the first floor of the castle. He stayed away from areas he heard Filch liked to patrol unless it was absolutely necessary, and also kept an eye out for Mrs. Norris' blood red eyes.

Somehow he miraculously made it to the front door without getting caught. Yami Yugi was in for a surprise, though, as he swung open the double doors and found two people waiting for him outside.

"It's about time you got here, _pharaoh,"_ Yami Bakura snarled, making the title sound like a curse.

"Tomb robber," Yami Yugi greeted, as displeased as the other dark form was. Seto just rolled his eyes.

"Knock it off, both of you," he growled. "I'm not playing referee between two five thousand year old _children."_

The two of them spared each other another glare before Yami Yugi turned his attention to the taller boy.

"You've felt it as well, Kaiba-kun?" he asked. "Harry's in trouble."

Seto nodded minutely. "Even I couldn't ignore this," he said, pulling out the Millennium Rod from its hiding place in his robes. The Item was glowing, just as the Puzzle and the Ring were.

Yami Bakura yawned tiredly. "So lets go, save the kid, and come back," he said, sneering at Yami Yugi again. "His royal highness-ness needs his beauty sleep."

Both Yami Yugi and Seto glared at the tomb robber as he started to make his way toward the forbidden forest, using the Ring as sort of a "Harry lo-jack". They followed soon after, allowing him to continue leading the way, as they could not do much to contribute to finding him. The three of them traveled deep into the forest, with Yami Bakura paying all his attention to the Ring and Yami Yugi and Seto's eyes flicking about at every sound. After a few moments of searching, the points on the Ring suddenly went dead. The tomb robber pounded on the Millennium Item, as if it were an electronic device he was trying to get to work.

"Great," Seto remarked dryly. "Now wh—"

"Shh!" Yami Bakura snapped suddenly, and Seto clamped his mouth shut. The tomb robber's eyes wandered about, as if searching for something. Then, a high-pitched, girl-like scream came from somewhere, and the Ring came to life once again, pointing toward the left.

The three of them crashed through the forest, coming out on top of a small hill looking down on a clearing to behold a gruesome sight. Something dark and sinister was crouched over the body of a slivery white horse… and it was drinking its _blood!_ Seto made a sound like he was going to be sick, as Yami Yugi noticed that Harry was there, rooted to the spot, staring at the dark creature in horror.

The thing turned away from the horse and started to charge toward him, when Yami Yugi jumped in front of him at the last possible second. He reached to the powers of the Millennium Puzzle, creating a shield around himself and Harry just as the creature started to lunge for them. It hit his shield instead, nearly cracking it with one hit and making him wince. The creature reared back for another attack, and Yami Yugi knew the shield would not be able to hold.

"Ra-be-damned Pharaoh!" Yami Bakura suddenly snarled, jumping the creature before it could attack again. The tomb robber wrapped an arm around what he thought was the thing's neck as it twisted back and forth, trying to shake him off.

"Dammit, pharaoh!" he shouted. "Use your damned Mind Crush on it!"

"I can't get a clear shot!" Yami Yugi protested.

Yami Bakura bit out a rather foul Egyptian curse. "Can't you do anything right!"

The dark creature reached around and grabbed the tomb robber by his leg. With a good tug, it pulled him off and then sent him flying against a nearby tree. Yami Yugi barely had time to notice him hit the ground afterwards, however, as the creature returned to menacing him. It attacked the shield again, shattering it to pieces and sending him flying back into Harry. The two of them tumbled to ground, and Yami Yugi tried to get his bearings back so he could use the Puzzle's Mind Crush ability, but the creature was approaching too fast for him to even think.

As it turned out, he did not even need to use the Puzzle's power. Just as the dark creature was about to attack them, a blast of magic hit it squarely in what appeared to be its chest, sending it flying backwards. It let out sort of a hissing snarl before disappearing deep into the forest.

Yami Yugi looked up to the hill above him and Harry to see Seto standing there, his arm outstretched with his hand gripping the Millennium Rod tightly. He was shaking and gasping for breath, as if he could not believe nor understand what he had just done. With a clatter, the Rod fell from his hand, and he fell to his knees shortly after.

Yami Yugi was about to climb up there to see if he was all right, but something below him caught his attention. He looked down as Harry cast a spell that allowed the tip of his wand to glow. The light cast over his face, and Harry frowned at his appearance.

"Yugi?" he asked. "Is that you?"

Yami Yugi looked down at the young English boy sadly. "I'm sorry," he said. "My partner and I haven't been entirely truthful with you –"

"Harry! Harry? Are yeh all right now?"

Yami Yugi's head snapped up as Hagrid's voice came from somewhere.

"You'd better go," Harry said, drawing his attention back down. "Saved me or not, if Hagrid catches you here, he'll be furious."

Yami Yugi nodded, and climbed up the hill to see if Seto was all right. By that time, he had snapped out of his shock and – reluctantly – reclaimed the Millennium Rod. Yami Bakura had also recovered, teetering slightly as he stood up from where he had landed. The three of them were about to head off, when Yami Yugi turned back to Harry.

"In the library tomorrow, I promise my partner and I will explain everything," he said.

Harry nodded, and with that, they were gone before Hagrid showed up.

-.oOOo.-

For the rest of the night, no matter how hard Seto tried, he could not get an ounce of sleep. After what felt like hours of tossing and turning, he finally got out of bed, and was about to go down to the common room when something on his nightstand caught his eyes. He deliberated a moment, before grabbing the Millennium Rod and heading downstairs.

Damn that Marik! He knew that he did not want to have anything to do with the Millennium Items! He should have gotten the hint back then, when the time came for Yami Yugi to regain his memories and he had refused to participate in the effort, using the goings on of his company as an excuse to get out of it. After all, he was just Seto Kaiba, CEO of Kaiba Corporation and Duel Monsters World Champion (though he had a gut feeling if Yugi ever participated in a world tournament, he would not even have _that_ title). He was _not_ a high priest or whatever; maybe his ancestor had been in the past but that was just that – the past. It had nothing to do with him, and yet…

Seto glared down at the Millennium Rod in his hand as he sat down in an armchair. Back in the forest, when that creature was attacking Yami Yugi, he had felt a great desire to protect him mixed with a deep sense of regret flowing from the Rod. He had never experienced anything like that before in his life, and was also confused by it. He was under the impression that the high priest _hated_ the pharaoh, so why would he – assuming he was in the stupid thing – feel that way toward him?

"Dammit!" Seto snarled suddenly. "Why do I have to put up with this!"

The Rod responded to his frustration, sending a sort of patronizing feeling through him. He frowned at it, caught off guard.

"Can you…" he began, feeling rather foolish. "Can you understand me?"

A positive feeling flowed through him, and he almost dropped the Rod in shock. Seto gulped reflexively.

"Why didn't you ever say something before?" he asked.

Again, there was that patronizing feeling, but this time he got the distinct impression that it was _blaming _him! He scowled at the Item, not pleased.

"Well, excuse me!" he retorted.

What happened next would have Seto questioning his sanity for days afterward. It was faint and garbled, like it was coming in over a bad cell phone transmission, but he could still hear the humor in it all the same.

_There's no excuse for you._

Seto really did drop the Rod that time, leaping out of his chair and backing away from it as if it had bitten him. He was breathing heavily from the shock; where had that voice come from?

_In your mind, baka hikari._

All the color drained from Seto's face as he looked around the room, as if he were trying to find some other more logical reason for the voice. It chuckled at him as he looked around, amused.

_I _could_ appear before you, you know._

"Why don't you then?" Seto demanded.

_Because you're too damn stubborn._

"Excuse me?" he asked, insulted.

_You heard me,_ the voice replied. _Since you keep refusing to accept the fact that I exist within you, my Soul Door won't unlock._

"Good," Seto replied, flopping down in a chair. "I've had enough excitement for one night."

He got a distinct impression that the voice shrugged. _Suit yourself, _he replied._ I'll just be behind here, quietly waiting for you to pry your head out of your ass._

With that, the voice fell silent. Seto rubbed his forehead in frustration, knowing that he _definitely_ was not going to be getting any sleep that night.


	12. Through the Trap Door

**Yu-Gi-Oh!  
Episode Nine and Three Quarters**

Snape's riddle excerpted from the book.

**CHAPTER TWELVE – THROUGH THE TRAP DOOR**

Yugi paced back and forth in the library the next day, waiting for Harry and the others to show up. He had not had much of an appetite for breakfast that morning, considering he would have to try to explain away the fact that he was possessed by a five thousand year old pharaoh, that Bakura was possessed by a five thousand year old tomb robber, and that _maybe_ Seto was possessed by a five thousand year old high priest. Marik, who also had no appetite that morning, watched him as he paced, drumming his fingers on the table he was sitting at.

"You're not mad at me, are you?" Yugi asked suddenly, stopping to look at Marik.

"Mad?" he asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Why would I be mad? You're only going to be telling three English people we've known for not even a full year all about the pharaoh and the Millennium Items. I don't think that's anything to be mad about."

Yugi winced at his tone. "Please be serious."

Marik planted his hands on the table as he stood up, annoyed. "No one's really supposed to know about this sort of thing, you know," he hissed. "How long did it take you to finally tell Jonouchi-kun and the others? Eight _years?"_

"That was different," Yugi protested. "I didn't even realize it myself until the duel the other me had with Yami Bakura back in Duelist Kingdom. I thought I was just having black outs."

Marik let out a frustrated sigh, plopping back in his seat. "Well, I guess it was inevitable," he said. "Between Snape and Malfoy, I'm surprised they didn't find out ages ago."

Just then, Bakura and Seto entered the library and joined them, the latter of the two boys looking rather pale and bedraggled. He fell into a seat, looking like he was going to fall asleep right then and there.

"Are you all right, Seto-kun?" Yugi asked, concerned.

"Hai," Seto replied dryly. "Just had an interesting conversation last night, that's all."

"With who?" Marik asked. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes with one hand, the taller boy used the other to slap the Millennium Rod unceremoniously on the table. Marik stared at it and then him, surprised. "Oh… lovely…"

Yugi also stared at the Rod. "So… that means the 'other you' has finally appeared, Seto-kun?" he asked.

Seto shook his head. "No, he told me my stubbornness was keeping him from coming out, and I rather prefer to keep it that way."

"Why?" Yugi asked, genuinely confused. The taller boy glared at him.

"Yugi-kun, look around," he said. He pointed to Marik. "He was possessed by a psychopath and he –" he pointed to Bakura – "is randomly possessed by an insane maniac."

Bakura crossed his arms, his hair pointing up as his other self took over.

"I resent that!" Yami Bakura exclaimed. "A maniac I may be, but I am perfectly sane!"

Yugi and Marik sweatdropped as Bakura returned to normal. He blinked, before rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"I fully understand your reluctance to let your 'yami' out, Kaiba-kun," he said.

"I knew you would," Seto replied dryly, before turning his attention to Marik. "I told you several times – high, loud, and _repeatedly_ – that I did _not_ want to be involved with the Millennium Items. If I loose my sanity because of this, or worse, I'll make sure it comes back to you ten fold!"

Marik sighed as he caught sight of Harry, Ron, and Hermione entering the library. "You're a little late for that," he commented. "Yugi's about to make my life a living hell."

-.oOOo.-

Surprisingly, Harry and the others took the news better than the four of them anticipated. Yugi supposed that after everything that had happened so far, being possessed by five thousand year old Egyptian spirits was not much of a shock. Their friendship was undamaged by the revelation – if anything, it was strengthened – and life continued as normal right through exam time.

It was exceptionally hot that June, especially in the room where they had to take their written exams. Hundreds of first year students crammed in one large room, scribbling furiously away with their anti-cheating quills, coupled with the fact that they had to wear their black robes despite the heat and you had a group of very hot, very brain fried children.

There were practical exams too, of course. Bakura had quite a bit of fun making a pineapple tap dance across Professor Flitwick's desk. That was, until Yami Bakura took over, and the fruit was not only dancing, but also singing about a cruddy old man who was too short. Fortunately, the professor had a good sense of humor, and awarded him extra points. Yugi managed to come away with the most points in the Transfiguration exam, turning his mouse into a snuffbox that had a similar appearance to the box the Millennium Puzzle had been contained in. Unfortunately, when Marik attempted to do something similar, he was so focused on trying to make it look nice that his still had whiskers.

"At least it doesn't have a tail!" he had protested, but McGonagall still took points off.

He made up for it though in Potions, where he and Ron made a Forgetfulness Potion that, according to Snape, was potent enough to make a full grown adult forget right up to their child years. If Marik had not made a comment about Snape testing it to make sure, they would have come away with the highest marks in the class. Both Seto and Hermione shined in History of Magic, where the two of them zipped through their exams twice over before handing them in long before everyone else was done.

After the exams, the seven of them left the castle and walked about the grounds, basking in the warmth of the sun.

"Thank _god_ that's over!" Ron exclaimed, taking his robe off and slinging it over his shoulder. "That was pure torture!"

"I didn't think it was _that_ bad," Yugi protested.

"Optimist."

"Yup!"

"Hey, Harry-kun, you could look a little more cheerful," Marik said, looking over his shoulder at the younger boy. "We've got a whole week before we find out how we did."

Harry shook his head, rubbing his forehead where a thunderbolt shaped scar stared out from under his messy bangs.

"It's not that, Marik," he said, wincing. "It's my scar. It's hurt like this before, just never this bad."

"Maybe it's a warning?" Seto suggested.

Harry sighed. "Or maybe I'm just nervous," he said. "Ever since you guys saved me in the forest, I've had this feeling that Voldemort is going to jump out a grab me any minute."

Ron winced at the mention of the dreaded dark wizard, while Yugi looked up at Harry quizzically. "Since when was he a factor in anything?"

He was about to answer, when the sound of a flute of some kind reached their ears, and they all turned to see Hagrid sitting outside of his hut. He was playing a wooden instrument that he had obviously whittled himself. Harry stared at the giant of a man, his face suddenly lighting up with an idea.

"Oh no…" he muttered.

"What?" Bakura asked.

"Don't you think it's rather odd, that what Hagrid wants more than anything is a dragon," Harry began, "and a stranger just happens to show up with one in his pocket?"

Harry took off toward Hagrid, Hermione and Ron running after him. Yugi, Seto, Bakura, and Marik just stared after them, caught off guard by their sudden desire to protect the Philosopher's Stone once again.

_Looks like Harry got his fighting spirit back,_ Yami Yugi commented within Yugi's mind.

_Yeah,_ Yugi replied, smiling inwardly. _Looks like he didn't need our help after all._

-.oOOo.-

Both halves of Yugi were exhausted by the time they finally went to bed that night. He said goodnight to Marik before slipping under the covers and disappearing into a blissful slumber. Unfortunately, it was not to last. Some time around midnight, he woke up once again, gasping for breath and gripping his chest. A sharp pain had lanced through him, disturbing his dreams. Apparently, his sudden awakening had also disturbed Marik in the next bed over, as the Egyptian poked his head in through the bed curtains.

"Are you all right, Yugi-kun?" he asked. "You're sweating!"

"Marik-kun, is Harry still here?" Yugi demanded.

Marik frowned, but padded over to Harry's bed and threw open the curtains to reveal that the bed had not even been touched. He went over to Ron's bed, and upon discovering that empty as well, raced out to common room. When he came back to tell Yugi the only person still around was Neville, the shorter boy was already dressed in his black tank top and jeans, complete with belts and Millennium Puzzle.

"You don't think they went to the forbidden corridor, do you?" Marik asked, quietly starting to get dressed himself.

"I wouldn't be surprised," Yugi answered as the Egyptian slipped his favorite purple shirt over his head. "I heard rumors that Dumbledore got called back to London. If that's the case, then Snape must be going to get the Philosopher's Stone tonight. Harry must have found a way around Fluffy, and he's probably gone to head him off."

"Okay, wait a minute," Marik said, halfway through putting on his pants. "First off, Harry doesn't stand a chance against Snape."

Yugi nodded. "I know, that's why we're going to find him."

"I figured," Marik replied dryly. "Second, how are _we_ supposed to get past Fluffy?"

Yugi considered a moment, before his face lit up at an idea. "Music soothed the savage beast. I never thought I'd say this, but, Marik, bring your harmonica."

The two of them slipped out of the bedroom and the common room, making their way along the shadows of the hallways with Marik leading. It did not take them long to find the door that led to the forbidden corridor, but when they were just outside, they heard footsteps coming from the opposite direction. They stopped dead and ducked behind a statue, but judging from the noise the other footsteps made, they also did the same. Marik and Yugi frowned, when they heard voices coming from the footsteps.

"Yugi-kun?" one voice asked.

"Marik-kun?" asked the other.

Yugi and Marik exchanged looks.

"Seto-kun?" Yugi asked.

"Bakura-kun?" asked Marik.

They poked their head out from behind the statue, squinting in the darkness. Almost like a mirror image, Seto and Bakura poked their heads out from behind a similar statue. All four boys sweatdropped before fully emerging from their hiding places.

"Did you find out how to get past Fluffy?" Seto asked, already knowing why they were there, judging from the look on his face.

"Possibly," Yugi answered, pushing the normally locked door to the forbidden corridor open a bit. A growling noise greeted his ears, and he turned to Marik, who already had his harmonica out.

"Whatever you do, don't panic," Bakura suggested. The Egyptian shot him an annoyed look.

"Easy for you to say, you don't have to go first," he replied.

Marik took in a long, steadying breath, before putting the harmonica to his mouth and blowing out his favorite song. He entered the forbidden corridor as he played, to see that the gigantic three-headed dog was swaying unsteadily on its feet. After a moment, it came crashing to the ground, and the others followed him in as soon as they heard the crash.

"There," Yugi pointed to the trap door at the dog's feet. "That must be where the Stone is."

Seto and Bakura went over to the trap door and hauled at the ring attached to it. After a moment, the door came open, much to Seto's apparent relief, as he looked like he was going to gag from the dog's smelly breath. Under the door, however, was nothing but darkness with no ground that they could see.

"I'll go first," Seto announced, sitting down at the lip of the hole before slipping down inside. There was a thud, and he shouted up, "It's all right! There's a soft plant to land on!"

Yugi jumped in next, followed by Bakura. Marik played a few more notes before diving head first into the hole. His feet _just_ cleared the lip of it when Fluffy came awake again, snarling angrily. The trap door snapped close as he hit the "soft" landing spot, nearly loosing his harmonica.

"We've gotta be a good mile under the school," Yugi commented as Marik tried to get his bearings.

"Lucky this plant thing was here," the Egyptian said.

"_Lucky!"_ Bakura exclaimed. "Look!"

The boy's other self took over as he struggled toward a damp wall. Yugi looked down to see that tendrils from the plant had already wrapped around their legs without their noticing, pinning them firmly to the thing. No trap could keep Yami Bakura held for long, however, and somehow he managed to slip out of the plant's firm grasp. The other boys tried to get away from it as well, but the harder they struggled, the tighter the hold it seemed to get on them.

"Yami Bakura-kun!" Yugi shouted.

"Shut up and stop moving!" Yami Bakura ordered. "Hikari says this is a Devil's Snare."

"And this means _what _to us!" Marik shouted, trying to keep the plant from getting a hold of his neck.

"Devil's Snare likes the dark and damp…" Yami Bakura trailed off, listening as if his hikari were trying to remember something.

"So light a fire!" Seto gasped, fighting for air as the plant wrapped itself around his chest.

Yami Bakura looked around, somewhat frantically. "But there's no wood!"

"_BAKA TOMB ROBBER!" _Marik shouted. "Are you training to be a wizard or not!"

Yami Bakura winced – apparently his hikari was yelling at him too – as he took out his wand. With a wave of the wand and a shout of "Incendio", a jet of flames shot out at the Devil's Snare. The plant let out a squeaking sound as it retreated, loosening itself enough for Yugi, Seto, and Marik to tumble away from it. Marik got to his feet first, glaring at the tomb robber.

"'There's no wood'," he mimicked. "And you call yourself the king of thieves."

"Oh, shut up, Gravekeeper," Yami Bakura snarled.

"Enough, guys!" Yugi exclaimed, getting to his feet and heading for a stone passageway. "We've gotta hurry, or Harry could be hurt!"

The four of them took off at a run, the corridor lightening as they made their way through. After a moment, they reached another large chamber. Across the way, there was a door that looked to be firmly locked, with a broom hovering next to it. High above them, thousands of glittering wings fluttered about, looking like a massive bird sanctuary. There was only one thing…

"They're _keys!"_ Marik exclaimed, squinting upward. "This must be Professor Flitwick's trap!"

He raced across the way to get the broom, ignoring everyone's shouts. He hopped on to it before speeding straight up. After a moment of hovering about above, he dived suddenly, and then came back down to the ground, holding a key with severely bent wings.

"I almost feel sorry for this thing," he said as they made their way to the other side of the room. He rammed the key into the lock and turned it, letting the door swing open. They left that room almost as quickly as they had entered, leaving the key to attempt to fly back up with the others.

The next chamber looked like it had already been conquered and then some. A giant chessboard stood in the center of the room, with some chess pieces lined up along the sides. There were also _pieces_ of chess pieces, most of which had been unceremoniously dropped on the side of the board. There was only one flesh and blood person in the room, and it was…

"Ron-kun!" Yugi shouted, racing over to where Ron lay limp amongst the remains of what had once been a horse.

"Is he all right?" Marik asked, joining him along with Seto and Yami Bakura. Just then, the door on the other side of the room opened, revealing a slightly bloody and scared Hermione. She was surprised to see them, but it only lasted a moment as she ran up to join them.

"What are you all doing here?" she asked, looking down at Ron sadly.

"We were worried about you, and with good reason apparently," Seto replied.

"Where's Harry?" Yugi asked.

"He's gone on ahead," she answered. "He's confronting Snape, and possibly Voldemort, alone."

Marik gripped her shoulders, looking her in the eyes. "Hermi-chan, why does Harry think that Voldemort is here?"

Hermione bit her lip. "Harry said that it was Voldemort that tried to attack him in the forest," she answered. "He said he doesn't know how, he just knows it was him. Apparently, he's been living off of unicorn's blood, but because drinking unicorn blood makes a person live a cursed life, he now wants to drink the Elixir of Life from the Philosopher's Stone."

"And if he did, he would be restored to his full power," Yami Bakura finished for her, crossing his arms. "Not a bad plan if I do say so myself."

"Don't get any ideas, tomb robber," Marik growled at him before turning to Yugi. "Look, you three go on ahead. I'll take Hermi-chan and Ron back up through the trap door and let someone know what's going on down here."

"But, Marik-kun –" Yugi began, but the Egyptian cut him off.

"Look, I don't have a Millennium Item anymore, and I'd only get in the way," he said. "You three have more of a chance of saving Harry, and we'll need to use my harmonica to get past Fluffy again anyway."

Hermione shook her head. "But the trap ahead, there's no other way to get past it," she protested.

Marik bent down and scooped Ron up in his arms before tossing her a wink. "Hey, have a little faith in the tomb robber. He may be clueless sometimes, but he knows how to get out of a trap."

Yami Bakura raised an eyebrow. "Was that a compliment, Gravekeeper?"

Marik rolled his eyes as he made his way out. "Don't let it go to your head, tomb robber."

With that, he and Hermione left the room with Ron, back toward the room of flying keys and leaving Yugi, Seto, and Yami Bakura alone. Yugi took a deep breath before running for the door ahead of them, the other two boys following closely behind. As soon as they entered the new hallway, a foul smell reached their noses. Further inside, they found a troll passed out cold on the floor. They edged around it – Yami Bakura making a face at the memory of his first encounter with trolls – and continued on to the next chamber.

At first glance, the room was quite simple, with only a table lined with seven bottles resting in the center, and the door leading onward on the other side. However, as soon as all three of them were completely in the room, fire sprang up around them: purple flames behind them, black flames ahead of them.

"Look," Seto said, stepping toward the table to take a roll of parchment lying next to the bottles. He unrolled it, and read aloud:

_Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,  
__Two of us will help you, whichever you would find,  
__One among us seven will let you move ahead,  
__Another will transport the drinker back instead,  
__Two among our number hold only nettle wine,  
__Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in line.  
__Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore,  
__To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:  
__First, however slyly the poison tries to hide  
__You will always find some on nettle wine's left side;  
__Second, different are those who stand at either end,  
__But if you would move onward, neither is your friend;  
__Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,  
__Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides;  
__Fourth, the second left and the second on the right  
__Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight._

"This must be Snape's trap," he declared, reading it over again to himself. "Evil he might be, but he is brilliant. This isn't magic, it's logic, and most wizards don't have an ounce of that. They would be stuck here forever."

"We will be too," Yami Bakura said sourly, holding up a small empty bottle. "How much you want to bet that this contained the potion to move forward?"

Seto thought briefly, before reaching into the pocket of his pants and pulling out his Duel Monsters deck. He flipped through the cards, before taking one out and handing it to the tomb robber. Yami Bakura raised an eyebrow before holding up the card.

"Trap Master!" he shouted. A vortex to the Shadow Realm opened up, and a creature with various tools hanging out of its cloak. "Deactivate the trap before us!"

The Trap Master sprung into action immediately, somehow pulling out a water hose from its cloak and spraying down the fire. Seto, Yugi, and Yami Bakura raced ahead and through the door, just in case the fire came back again.

Before they knew it, they were in the final chamber. The only object in the room was the mirror that showed people their desires. Harry was there of course, tied up in ropes somehow. The other person in the room, however, was a bit of a surprise…


	13. A Millennium Item Shatters

**Yu-Gi-Oh!  
Episode Nine and Three Quarters**

**CHAPTER THIRTEEN – A MILLENNIUM ITEM SHATTERS**

"Professor Quirrell!" Yugi exclaimed, hardly believing his eyes.

The purple-robed professor, who had been staring into the mirror before, whirled on them, the snarl on his face totally out of character for him. He snapped his fingers, and ropes lanced out toward them from what seemed like nowhere. Seto and Yugi were captured immediately, but Yami Bakura managed to dodge. He started heading for Quirrell when one of the ropes grabbed the Millennium Ring and pulled, nearly strangling the tomb robber before he too was captured.

"Such nosy children in this school," Quirrell sneered, the normal stutter gone from his voice. He turned his attention back to the mirror then, ignoring them.

"Figures," Seto commented dryly, only speaking loud enough for Yugi to hear. "Quirrell was also chanting at that Quidditch match. Snape's just such an unpleasant person, we automatically assumed it was him when Marik-kun told us about the event at the forbidden forest, when Snape was really confronting who was behind everything."

Yugi barely heard him. His focus was drawn to the mirror, where even from the distance he was at, he could see himself reflected in the surface, dressed as the pharaoh like he had been the first time. He silently cursed the mirror; he did not have time for mind games – they had to find the Philosopher's Stone and get it away from Quirrell as soon as possible. No matter how hard he focused on that, though, the mirror refused to change once again.

"Harry-kun, are you all right?" Yugi asked, tearing his gaze away from the frustrating mirror. Harry looked over his shoulder at him as best as he could.

"I'm fine, just a little beat up," he answered, a weak smile on his face.

"Quiet!" Quirrell snapped. "I don't understand this. I see myself presenting the Stone to my master, but where _is_ it?"

To everyone's horror, a detached sort of voice answered the corrupted professor.

_Use the boy… Use the boy…_

"Potter!" Quirrell bellowed. The ropes holding Harry fell away immediately, leaving him free to escape, but the professor grabbed him by the shoulder before he could do anything. He shoved him before the mirror and whispered threateningly, "Tell me what you see."

From Yugi's vantage point, he could only see a scared and shaking Harry in the mirror. Harry apparently saw something else though, judging from the sudden look of revelation that appeared on the younger boy's face. Then, he saw something strange going on with Harry's jeans' pocket. Quirrell had not noticed it, but Yugi did, and judging from the odd bulge that appeared, the young wizard had somehow obtained the Philosopher's Stone!

"Well!" Quirrell demanded. "Tell me what you see!"

"I… I see myself shaking hands with Dumbledore. I've won the house cup!"

It was such a horrible lie, that even Seto winced. Quirrell did not seem to notice though, as he tossed Harry aside and returned his attention to the mirror, ignoring them completely. As soon as he was sure the professor was not paying him any heed, Harry raced for Yugi and the others, trying desperately to untie them, when that detached voice came again.

_He lies… He lies…_

Quirrell whirled around. "Potter!"

_Let me speak… face-to-face…_

Quirrell's face went pale at the voice's request. "Master, you are not strong enough!"

_I have strength… for this…_

Quirrell turned away from them as he reached up for his purple turban. Harry stood there, just in front of Yugi, a look of abject horror on his face as the professor removed the cloth layer by layer until what was underneath was revealed. Yami Bakura let out a horrified shout, Seto looked like he was going to be sick, and Yugi could hear his other half muttering a prayer to Ra under his breath. Under the turban was a face, deathly pale, with glaring red eyes and slits for nostrils. It twisted about, as if it were not really attached to the back of Quirrell's head, but instead was hovering formlessly just before it.

Voldemort…

"Harry Potter…" the face sneered. Harry tried to take a step back, but he was so horrified, it was doubtful he could even speak, not to mention move. "You see what I have become, Potter? Mere shadow and vapor… only able to live with a host. Unicorn blood has been able to sustain me, but once I have the Elixir of Life, I can again have my own body… Now, be a gentleman and give me the Stone in your pocket."

Harry finally took a step back that time, nearly crashing into Yugi. Voldemort smirked.

"Don't be a fool, Potter," he said. "Better to save yourself and your friends by joining me, or you'll meet the same sticky end as your precious parents. They died begging me for mercy."

"You _liar!"_ Harry declared.

"Monster!" Yugi shouted. "Leave Harry-kun alone!"

The Millennium Puzzle glowed, forcing Quirrell and the face of Voldemort to back off. When the glow faded, the ropes that held Yugi, Seto, and Yami Bakura were gone. Yugi grabbed Harry by the wrist and started tugging him toward the door.

"_Seize them!"_

Quirrell spun around and lunged for Harry and Yugi. Seto and Yami Bakura jumped in his way to fight him off, but a quick spell sent both of them tumbling to the ground. The professor grabbed Harry by the scruff of his shirt, pulling him out of Yugi's grasp and sending him flying into the mirror. Before the shorter boy could do anything, Quirrell had jumped on top of Harry and had his hands around his neck, choking the life out of him.

"_Harry-kun!" _he shouted, racing to help his friend, but he need not to have done so. Quirrell let out a cry of pain, pulling his hands away from Harry's neck. They were blistering and red, as if he had stuck them into a fire.

"It burns!" he shouted. "Master, his skin is like fire!"

"Then kill him and be done with it!" Voldemort shouted back.

Quirrell opened his mouth to cast a powerful hex on the young wizard, when Harry suddenly lunged upward and grabbed a hold of his face. The professor's whole face started burning at the touch, and even Voldemort screamed in pain. Harry let go of him, passing out as Quirrell backed away from him, his body burning away until the only thing that was left was his robes and the formless spirit of the dark wizard.

Yugi raced up to Harry as the spirit soared up toward the ceiling, letting out a hissing moan of rage. The older boy shook the young wizard, trying to get him to wake up, as Voldemort swung around…

"Yugi-kun!" Seto shouted. "Look out!"

Yugi spun around to see the dark spirit just inches away from him. He could barely react, could not even blink, as the thing passed through his body. The Millennium Puzzle reacted as if in reflex, trying to protect him and Yami Yugi from the evil power of Voldemort, but the stress was too much. A large crack appeared on the Item, starting at the center of the symbol of the Eye of the Wisdom of Darkness and spreading out through the rest of the Puzzle until it shattered into dozens of tiny pieces. The light in Yugi's eyes vanished as he collapsed amongst the remains of the Puzzle, the dark spirit of Voldemort emerging from the back of his body, letting out a hissing laugh as it hovered up toward the ceiling again.

Yami Bakura and Seto stared in shock, trying to understand what had just happened. A Millennium Item had shattered; how could that even be possible? Was Yami Yugi all right? Was Yugi all right? The tomb robber let out a growl, clenching his fists at his sides. Seto was at war with himself, double amounts of grief and anger running through him like a storm. Through it all, he could hear his other half within his mind, making odd noises, like he was pounding on a door.

_Dammit, hikari!_ his other half shouted. _Let me out of here, now!_

_No, _Seto replied. _You're staying where you belong. I don't want to have anything to do with you._

His other half let out a rather foul curse that definitely sounded like something he learned from outside of his high priest training. Seto ignored him, turning his attention back to the real world.

"Yugi… Pharaoh…" Yami Bakura muttered, his voice sounding like it was filled with hurt. He shook one of his fists up at the dark spirit of Voldemort. "You Ra-be-damned coward! Come down here and face me like a man!"

Voldemort laughed at him, as if he were too happy to grant that request. He swung down from the ceiling so fast that even the tomb robber had trouble dodging out of the way. Yami Bakura jumped back to his feet, however, taunting Voldemort again as Seto rushed over to where Yugi and Harry lay barely an inch away from each other. Harry was still breathing – it looked like he had only passed out – but Yugi… Seto pulled the small boy onto his lap, checking for a pulse or a heartbeat or anything that would prove that there was some life left in him.

There was nothing.

No breath.

No pulse.

Yugi was…

"Iie, Yugi-kun," Seto muttered under his breath. "Your story can't end here. You remember what you said, when I almost lost to Isis? 'I can see. In front of us there's the road where we will battle. In this Battle City, the future is where you and me battle.' You threw my own words back at me then, and now I'm giving them to you once more. The future is where you and me battle, and I wont let you die until the duel where I win against you fairly!"

No response; Yugi did not even twitch. Seto closed his eyes and hung his head in shame, his heart feeling like it had been shattered to pieces along with the Millennium Puzzle.

_Hikari…_

Seto opened his eyes, and gasped in surprise. No longer was he in the final chamber that had held the Philosopher's Stone, but in a hazy sort of surreal room with white walls and a deep blue carpet. Various tools and wires along with half or fully completed duel disks were scattered about, as if representing the many completed or half completed ideas he had and the tools with which he used to make those ideas into reality. Before him was a door, and he stood up and opened it.

Beyond the door was a nondescript, narrow corridor and across the way was another door. This one had ivy growing along the wall around it, as if to indicate that it was rooted there by some other means. On the door itself was the Eye of the Wisdom of Darkness, with several metal bars fastened securely over it.

_What is this place?_ he asked.

_Your Soul Corridor,_ answered the voice of his other half from behind the barred door. _This is where Yugi and Bakura go anytime they get that weird, distant look on their faces. You just came out of your Soul Room, and as you can see, I'm still stuck in mine._

Seto rolled his eyes, ignoring his other half's tone.

_I told you not to bother me, _he said. _What happened to waiting behind your Soul Door quietly?_

_Because I want out already, and I'm getting tired of waiting for you,_ his other self replied. _Pharaoh has been grievously hurt, and now the tomb robber is playing tap dance with that spirit. Mind you, I don't _like_ the tomb robber, but it's the whole point of the matter…_

_So why haven't you taken my body by force?_ Seto demanded. _I'm sure you have the power to do so._

_Of course I do,_ his other self said, slightly miffed, _but then you'd hate me for it, and any time I would want to come out thereafter, I would have to force the change. That does not work too well in these kinds of partnerships._

Seto frowned, but no matter how strange it sounded, his other self did have a very solid point. He had several questions, though, and he was not going to just let loose this person he had no idea about without getting at least one answer.

_I want to know something,_ he stated. _I was under the impression that you hated Yami Yugi. Why do you want to protect him?_

_Yami Yugi…?_ his other half asked, confused. _Oh, is that what you call Pharaoh Panseru? Rather possessive isn't it?_

_Just answer the question._

His other self sighed. _Of course I never hated Pharaoh. I'll admit, after his father died, I was a bit reluctant to serve a child so young and naïve, but his intelligence eventually won me over._

Seto frowned. _But… the tablet at the museum. The Blue Eyes and the Black Magician…? The battle…?_

There was a long pause, as if he had hit a strong cord with his other half. After a moment, he answered, _That sad battle was a result of my lust for power._

There came another heavy sigh from behind the door. _The Millennium Items – before Pharaoh, the tomb robber, and we priests possessed them – their original power was to bring out the hearts of their owners. Pharaoh's heart was pure, as well as many of the other priests, so they remained unchanged. When Bakura took control of the Millennium Ring, his heart was filled with hatred, and he became more of a menace than he originally was. I was obsessed with protecting the kingdom, and my belief that power was the only means to do so. I was wrong, but I realized it too late…_

Seto just stared at the barred door, disbelieving. Always when dueling or just living his life, he thought he could survive by overwhelming force. When dueling against Yugi, however, he always lost and now he knew what it was that he lost against: his own way of thinking.

In truth, he was no better than his adoptive father.

With a clang, the bars crisscrossing the door fell away and rolled out of sight down the Soul Corridor. The door to his other half's Soul Room swung open, revealing the now freed 'yami'. It was like looking in a mirror, almost, as this other part of himself wore the exact same clothes with the exact same hairstyle and everything. The only differences were minor, such as a slight difference in height and some black streaks in his hair and lighter blue eyes.

_What is your name?_ Seto asked, at a loss for anything else to say as the other him stepped out from behind the Soul Door.

_Coincidentally, it's Seto,_ his other half answered, _though I suppose you and the others will probably take to calling me 'Yami' Seto. It doesn't matter to me, really. Now, shall we…?_

_Just one more thing._

_Yes?_

_You're a lot… _looser_ than I imagined you'd be,_ Seto said.

Yami Seto sighed. _Five thousand years imprisoned in a rod will make you change your whole outlook on life. Just ask the tomb robber; he's not _nearly_ as sadistic as he used to be. Now, sit tight. I'm going to teach that Voldemort a lesson!_

In the real world, Seto opened his eyes… to reveal they had changed to a lighter shade of blue. Yami Seto gently set Yugi's lifeless body on the ground again before standing up and turning to where Yami Bakura was still playing "catch me if you can" with a now very frustrated Voldemort. The tomb robber was tiring though, and he tripped, crashing rather ungracefully to the ground. The dark spirit was about to pounce on him then, but a quick blast of magic from the Millennium Rod forced him away.

"Oy, ugly!" Yami Seto called, patting the Rod in one hand. "How about leaving the lousy tomb robber alone and trying your luck against a high priest!"

Yami Bakura blinked, caught off guard by his choice of words. His eyes narrowed then, understanding what had happened.

"It's about _time_ you showed up!" he snapped.

Yami Seto smirked. "Shut up, tomb robber, and be grateful I'm saving your rear end."

-.oOOo.-

Darkness… by all means, he should have been used to the darkness by now, with all the Yami-no-Games he had played in the past. This darkness, however, was a deep, piercing sadness that stabbed him through the heart and stirred his consciousness…

Yugi awoke to find himself staring up at what was left of his Soul Corridor; pieces of debris floating about like the shattered Puzzle. He sat up, swaying from the effort, and looked about at the destruction before he realized there was another lying next to him. Yami Yugi was still out cold, but in addition he was washed out and pale, as if he were going to disappear any moment. Yugi grabbed him by the shoulders, shaking his other half furiously.

"Yami Yugi-kun!" he shouted. "Yami Yugi-kun! Wake up! Please!"

Yami Yugi did not respond. If anything he got paler.

"Onegai, Panseru-kun!" Yugi shouted, fighting back tears. "You can't leave me! You promised… you promised we'd stay together! All I want is for us to stay together! You can't go!"

He buried his head into his other half's shoulder, crying, still shaking him as if it would help him wake up. Yugi felt like his heart was torn to pieces. He wanted his other self to wake up and tell him that it would be all right like he always did. He wanted his other self to _be_ all right. Was that too much to ask for?

Suddenly, he felt a firm but gentle hand grip his shoulder. Yugi lifted his head and spun around to see a tall gentleman behind him. The man's long dark hair seemed to frame his entire face, and he was dressed in nondescript Egyptian robes with a medallion of a dragon hanging from a gold chain. Yugi stared up at the man; he seemed oddly familiar, though he knew for sure that he had never seen him before.

"You needn't fear, little pharaoh," the man said. "The time for your other self to leave you will never come, now that he swore to stay with you."

Yugi shook his head. "I'm not pharaoh, Panseru-kun is."

The man smiled gently. "When you looked in the Mirror of Erised, what did it show you?"

It took Yugi a moment to realize that he meant the mirror that showed people their hearts desire.

"It showed me as pharaoh," he answered. "But I don't want to be pharaoh."

"Ah! Yes… _you_ don't want to be," the man replied.

Yugi blinked, confused, before realization dawned on him. He looked down to the spirit of Yami Yugi; _he_ wanted him to be pharaoh?

"Allow me to explain," the man continued. "You have no outstanding desires that the mirror could see, that have not already come true. Normally, you would see yourself just as you were, but because of the presence of your other self, you were able to see _his_ desire as well."

"But I don't understand," Yugi stressed. "Why would Yami Yugi-kun want _me_ to be pharaoh?"

The man raised a questioning eyebrow. "You really don't know?" he asked. "Some bonds go deeper than friendship, family, and the like. Some bonds run so deep that those who hold such a bond can feel one another's pain, and share their memories. You and Pharaoh have such a bond, but it is not complete. Pharaoh's hearts desire is for that bond to be complete, and the only way it will be is if you share his title, and become pharaoh as well."

Yugi frowned. "Well why didn't he _tell_ me!"

The man chuckled. "You know him better than I, so I'm sure you're aware of his stubbornness."

Yugi sweatdropped. "Unh-hunh," he replied. He jumped to his feet then, a determined look on his face. "Well, then, fine! If it means that Panseru-kun and I can be closer, than I don't mind being pharaoh too! Only… uh… how…?"

The man smiled as the debris floating around them started glowing, coming together slowly.

"You already have the power to do so," the man said. "You just have to call on it, and it will be there."

The glow from the debris was becoming blinding, but through it all, Yugi noticed something. The dragon medallion around the man's neck; the dragon looked more like a snake than a dragon, with a long curving body and small wings that hardly had much for a wing span. Realization hit him then, and he understood who the man really was.

"Osiris…"

-.oOOo.-

Yugi's eyes slowly opened in the real world, to find himself staring up at the plain ceiling of the final chamber. The first thing he heard was the sounds of battle coming from somewhere above him, and the first thing he felt was a familiar weight against his chest. He looked down to see the Millennium Puzzle resting there, whole and intact, as if nothing had happened to it. Surprised, he reached into his mind immediately, seeking out the presence of his other self.

_Don't worry, aibou, I'm here,_ Yami Yugi replied. _I'm all right, but I'm not so sure about the others._

Painfully, Yugi rolled over onto his stomach, spotting the source of the battle above him. Yami Bakura was standing behind Seto (who, oddly enough, seemed taller than normal), holding a bleeding and obviously dislocated shoulder. The taller boy was trying to protect the tomb robber from the spirit of Voldemort, sending blasts of magic from the Millennium Rod toward it, but they were not doing much good, and soon the two of them were pinned up against a wall. Voldemort let out a hissing laugh, ready to go in for the kill, when Yugi got back to his feet.

"Voldemort!" he shouted. "You haven't finished dealing with me yet!"

The two boys turned in shock, surprised and yet relieved to see him alive and well. Even the tomb robber seemed happy, though Yugi assumed he was happier to see the Millennium Puzzle in one piece. Voldemort snarled as his presence, hovering back up toward the ceiling and circling like a hawk, waiting for its moment to strike.

_This is it, aibou,_ Yami Yugi declared within his mind. _This is where we prove how strong the bond we share is._

_I'm not afraid!_ Yugi exclaimed. _You're the first friend I ever had, Panseru-kun. I know we'll always stay together… together as pharaoh!_

Sensing weakness, Voldemort dived for Yugi. Just as the dark spirit was inches away from him, the Millennium Puzzle activated, covering him in its glow and forcing Voldemort to back off. Wisps of power spread out around him, though it was not just him protected by the Puzzle's power. A second person had appeared behind him, slightly taller, hovering over him as if protecting him as well.

After a moment, the light engulfing the two of them broke apart, revealing what had to be the most historic moment in the history of the Millennium Items. Yugi stood before Yami Yugi – who was so solid, it was hard to tell if he was a spirit or a flesh and blood person. Both of them were dressed in white and black robes with gold trim, and each had a royal purple cape draped about their shoulders. On their foreheads was a gleaming crown, two fins on either side framing their hair, with the Eye of the Wisdom of Darkness in the center.

Yami Bakura and Yami Seto stared in shock, hardly believing what they were seeing.

"By Ra…" the tomb robber muttered.

"So, this is how our story continues," Yami Seto declared. "This is how Pharaoh _truly _awakens."

Apparently, Voldemort at least had the gist of what was going on before him, as he tried to turn tail and run. Neither Yugi nor Yami Yugi would let him get away with that though. They flung a hand out in the direction of the spirit, fingers splayed.

"_MIND CRUSH!"_

Voldemort screamed in pain as he was hit by the spell from the both of them. The dark spirit shrank away as its power was taken from it, almost disappearing into nothingness. With a cry of rage, it disappeared into the ceiling, more than likely taking a short cut out of the school to find a place where it could recover.

With the danger gone, Yami Seto approached Yugi. The shorter boy's other self disappeared, back into the Millennium Puzzle, and the pharaoh's robes he was wearing somehow molded back into his black tank top and jeans.

"Pharaoh?" Yami Seto asked. "Are you all right?"

Yugi turned to him, his confusion at being called that by him quickly turning into understanding. "Yami Seto-kun, I'm tired."

He managed to let out a yawn before collapsing, and Yami Seto barely caught him in time. He looked up to Yami Bakura (who was shaking his head, muttering about how the pharaoh had captured all the glory again), then down to Harry (who was still passed out on the floor), and then back to Yugi. Yami Seto chuckled in spite of himself, mussing up the shorter boy's hair.

"It's okay, Pharaoh," he said. "Rest now. It's been one hell of a night."


	14. Parting Company for the Summer

**Yu-Gi-Oh!  
Episode Nine and Three Quarters**

**CHAPTER FOURTEEN – PARTING COMPANY FOR THE SUMMER**

Days later found Marik sitting under a tree on the front lawn of the castle, the owl Panseru hooting next to him and a piece of parchment in his lap. He stretched, letting out a lazy yawn, before starting on a letter to his sister, Isis, back in Japan.

_Dear Onee-san,_

_School's almost over, and I'll be coming back home  
within the week. Hope you haven't missed me too  
much! Oh, and you don't have to worry about me  
scaring the neighbors; if I use my magic outside of  
school, I could get expelled, and I don't want that._

_Guess what! We won against Ravenclaw in Quidditch!  
But… it doesn't really matter much as far as house points  
are concerned. Gryffindor is so far behind; we have no  
chance of getting the House Cup. Oh well, maybe next year._

_You're probably going to hate me for this, but I gave the  
Millennium Rod to Seto. Actually, never mind; it doesn't  
matter if you hate me for it, because Seto hates me enough  
already. I don't know what he's complaining about; the high  
priest is actually a pretty cool guy._

He was about to write more, when someone tossed something at him, nearly making him blot the ink. Marik caught the offending object and was about to snap at whoever threw it, when he realized exactly what it was he was holding.

The Millennium Ring!

He looked up in surprise, spotting the person who threw it. Yami Bakura stood not all that far away from him, his arms crossed and a bit of a scowl on his face.

"Take it," he said. "I don't want it anymore."

Marik stared at him as if he grew another head.

"There's no catch," the tomb robber continued, walking closer until he was standing just above him. "The Ring has the power to transfer one's soul into something else, so I've taken up permanent residence in my hikari. You needn't worry about any after effects from me."

Marik stared at him for a good moment, before saying, "Okay, here's a good question: _why!"_

Yami Bakura smirked, putting his hands on his hips. "The damned thing almost got me strangled down in that chamber. Besides, it hasn't been working for me since Pharaoh got his memories back, probably because it misses your ancestor, the high priest Mahaado."

Marik frowned in thought. "Which high priest was that?"

The tomb robber waved a dismissive hand. "The one that's sleeping in Yugi's deck right now."

Marik was about to ask what he meant by _that,_ when suddenly the normal Bakura took control. He rubbed the back of his neck, a bit embarrassed.

"Gomen, you two," he said, "but I really should go and see if my final scores are in. Ja ne, Mark-kun!"

With that, he took off toward the castle, leaving a very confused Marik in his wake. He shook his head before looking down at the Millennium Ring in his hand, hardly believing that the _tomb robber_ actually _willingly_ gave it away. Of course, he still had the Millennium Eye, but he knew Yami Bakura would not be so desperate as to try and use it. Despite how many times he complained about how his hikari was useless, he would not force the usage of the Eye on him.

Marik shook his head again, before slipping the leather strap that held the Ring over his head and letting it dangle around his neck. It felt good there, almost as if it belonged. He fingered the points a bit, before turning his attention back to his letter.

_Onee-san, you know how I always said that tomb  
robber was a little batty? What he just did really  
takes the cake…_

-.oOOo.-

A massive headache pounded in the back of his head, stirring Yugi into consciousness. He opened his eyes, staring up at ceiling of the hospital wing of the school. Dizziness overcame him almost immediately, and he shut his eyes once more, wishing his head would stop pounding. His movements obviously caught someone's attention, as he felt a slight weight at the foot of the bed he was in. He opened his eyes again, to see a patched up Harry smiling down at him. He opened his mouth, as if to say good morning, but stopped and cleared his throat.

"Ohaiyo, Yugi-kun," he said instead. It sounded a little odd coming from his mouth, especially with his English accent, but it got a smile out of Yugi all the same.

"Good to see you again, Harry-kun," he said, his voice coming out a little weak. "How long have I been out of it?"

"A few days," Harry answered. "Don't feel bad. I just woke up myself. Here, have some chocolate, it'll help clear your head."

Yugi never would have imagined substituting a piece of chocolate for aspirin as a headache cure, but the piece of dark chocolate Harry handed him worked faster than any Motrin or Tylenol he had ever popped into his mouth. Apparently, the darker the piece, the faster it worked.

"We should be able to go to the end of year feast tomorrow," Harry said, grabbing a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans from a pile next to his bed that looked like half the candy shop. Yugi looked over to the side of his bed to see the other half of said candy shop. "Pretty amazing, hunh?" Harry continued, seeing the perplexed look on his face. "As Dumbledore put it, what happened between us and Quirrell is an absolute secret, so of course the whole school knows about it. Apparently, Fred and George tried to send us a toilet seat, but Madam Pomfrey took it away. Good thing too; I don't know about you, but I wouldn't have wanted to wake up to see that."

Yugi chuckled, sitting up in bed and looking around. Spotting the Millennium Puzzle resting on the nightstand, he grabbed it and slipped the chain over his head.

_Welcome back, aibou,_ Yami Yugi greeted him almost immediately.

_Good to be back, Yami Yugi-kun,_ Yugi replied, before going for a chocolate frog out of his own pile.

"Um… Yugi, er… both of you," Harry began, still a little unsure of how to address his other half. "Thank you… thank you for saving me back there. I don't think I could have made it without you."

Yugi smiled. "Hey, we promised each other we would help one another out in the beginning, remember? That wasn't just limited to class work!"

Harry sighed. "We'll definitely need to help each other out at the feast tomorrow. Slytherin won the House Cup, and I can only imagine how pig headed Malfoy's going to be."

-.oOOo.-

Apparently, when Harry said that the whole school knew about what happened down beyond the trap door, he meant that they knew _everything,_ including the fact that Yugi, Seto, and Bakura were possessed by Egyptian spirits. Some students, especially ones from Slytherin house, kept giving them strange looks as they made their way down to the Great Hall in the company of Marik that night. The young Gravekeeper looked like he was going to have a fit, but Yugi managed to calm him down before they entered the Hall.

The great hall was decked out in drapes of the green and silver house colors of Slytherin, with one large drape behind the professors' table showing off the Slytherin snake, much to everyone's disappointment. Yugi and the others sat down in their respective seats, trying to ignore Malfoy as he looked at them with a sickening smirk on his face. Harry joined them soon after, and then the whole hall fell into a hushed silence as Dumbledore stood up at the professors' table to make a speech. Yugi and Marik more or less zoned out – Slytherin had four hundred and seventy-two points, Gryffindor had three hundred and twelve points, yadda, yadda – until the elderly headmaster started awarding extra points!

"First, to Mr. Ronald Weasley, for the best played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in years, I award Gryffindor house fifty points," Dumbledore announced.

Ron turned so red, it was hard to tell where his hair ended and his face started, as the other members of Gryffindor house started cheering the second youngest Weasley. The cheers died down, and the headmaster continued.

"Second, to Miss Hermione Granger, for the use of cool logic in the face of fire, I award Gryffindor house fifty points."

Hermione buried her face into Marik's shoulder, crying in shear joy as the students started cheering again. The Egyptian flushed bright red, rubbing the back of his neck as a goofy grin spread out across his face.

"Third!" Dumbledore shouted, so as to get the Gryffindor's to calm down. "Third, to Mr. Harry Potter, for pure nerve and outstanding courage, I award Gryffindor house fifty points."

The shouts of joy coming from the Gryffindor table were so loud, they nearly shook the bewitched ceiling. Their house was just ten points shy of being tied with Slytherin! If only they had eleven more points…! Dumbledore raised his hands for quiet, and it took awhile, but he had it once again.

"And lastly," he began, "it takes a great amount of courage to keep a secret, but even more courage to risk that secret's exposure to save a friend in need. Therefore, to Mr. Yugi Mutou, Mr. Marik Ishitar, Mr. Seto Kaiba, and Mr. Ryou Bakura; I award each of you fifty points for your houses."

The resulting explosion of cheers, shouts, and applause from Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Gryffindor nearly made Yugi go deaf. He sat in his seat, shocked, as people started congratulating him and pounding him on the back. They had overshot Slytherin by ninety points! They had _won. _He closed his eyes, tears of joy welling up inside of him.

_We did it, Yami Yugi-kun! _he exclaimed. _We really did it!_

Yami Yugi chuckled within his mind. _Way to go, hikari. Congratulations._

-.oOOo.-

Their bellies full and their eyes drooping in a need for sleep, the seven friends left the Great Hall to make their way back to their respective common rooms. They were about to part company, when someone shouted for them down the hallway. All seven of them stopped, not even bothering to turn around, as they already knew it was Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle behind them.

"You're really enjoying this, aren't you, starfish-head?" Malfoy asked. "You and your friends have gotten awarded for being freaks of nature!"

Everyone else in the hallway also stopped. Some of them were excited, as if they were hoping they would get their first chance to see the Egyptian spirits they had heard rumors about. After a moment of considering, Seto smirked, crossing his arms across his chest.

"Marik-kun, I seem to recall you making a bet that whoever cast a Batsu-game on him first would get a day at the arcade, your treat," he said.

Marik raised an eyebrow. "Are _you _taking me up on that bet?"

Yugi fingered a corner of the Millennium Puzzle, a slow smile spreading onto his face. "You know, this would be the perfect time to do it too," he said. "Gryffindor has already been awarded the House Cup, so we don't have to worry about loosing points."

Bakura cracked his knuckles. "This should be fun."

All seven of them exchanged amused looks before Yugi, Seto, and Bakura spun around to face Malfoy, their darker selves taking over. The pale blonde boy let out a shout of surprise and made like he was going to run, but Yami Seto pointed the Millennium Rod at him, making him stop in shear terror.

"Oy, Malfoy, don't go anywhere," the high priest said, a smirk creeping up on his face. "If you want to prove to everyone here how big you are, then you'll have to play a little game with us…"

-.oOOo.-

Before any of them knew it, the school year was officially over, and they were all packed and ready to go off to the Hogwarts Express. Seto was loading up his belongings in the horseless carriage that would take them to the train and was about to head off to the boats to join his friends, when he became aware of something shouting from his back pocket. He reached behind him and pulled out a small glass jar, big enough to fit in the palm of his hand, with an even smaller Malfoy inside, shouting and pounding his fists against the glass.

Rolling his eyes, Seto popped the mesh top open and tossed the contents out. The pale blonde boy appeared almost immediately, shaking, an angry snarl on his face.

"You… you… you…!" he stammered.

"Shut up," Seto replied, "and be grateful that Dumbledore went through the trouble of having your things packed for you." Then, to add insult to injury, he tossed Malfoy the jar. "Have a souvenir."

The look of absolute rage on Malfoy's face was so priceless, Seto wished he had a camera. He kept a firm bite on the inside of his mouth, trying desperately not to laugh out loud, as he rejoined his friends at the boats.

Soon, they were all back on the Hogwarts Express, sharing a large compartment, talking and laughing as they ate Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans and chocolate frogs; and letting out shouts of triumph or groans of defeat as they played Duel Monsters. Outside, the scenery sped past, going from rolling green hills to muggle towns in the blink of an eye. Before long, they were pulling off their wizard robes, swapping them for jackets and stuffing them away to be used next year as the train came to a slow halt at platform nine and three quarters at King's Cross Station.

It took a while to get through the barrier back to the muggle world; they did not want to be all popping out at once after all!

"You've got to come over this summer," Ron insisted as they filed into line, "all of you. I'll send an owl."

Some people jostled them as they moved toward the barrier. Still others called after them:

"Bye, Harry!"

"See you, Potter!"

"Still famous, eh, Harry-kun?" Marik asked, a grin on his face.

"Not where I'm going, I assure you," Harry insisted.

Harry, Hermione, and Ron went though the barrier first, and then Seto, Yugi, Bakura, and Marik followed soon after. As soon as they emerged, they heard a little girl squeal in excitement.

"Look, Mom, there he is, look!"

They turned to see Ginny Weasley, the youngest of the Weasley clan, pointing and tugging on her mother's sleeve excitedly. She was not pointing at her brother, however…

"Harry Potter!" she exclaimed. "Mom, look—!"

"Stop it, Ginny, it's rude to point," the roly-poly woman scolded as they approached. "Busy year, dears?" she asked them.

"Very," Harry answered.

Seto bowed respectfully. "Thank you for the Christmas sweaters, ma'am."

"Oh, it's no problem, dear."

Yugi was about to add his thanks as well, when a familiar voice rang out from the crowd.

"Onii-sama!"

Seto barely had time to react as a flying bush of black hair came toward him. He caught his young brother as he jumped on him, giving him a tight hug around his neck and nearly strangling him.

"I missed you so much, Onii-sama!" Mokuba exclaimed, getting a chuckle out of his older brother.

"It's all right, Otouto," he assured him. "I'm back for the summer."

Mokuba pouted. "Only the summer?"

Seto laughed at his brother's expression as more surprise visitors came up to them. Marik went over to his sister almost immediately, giving her a warm hug before talking excitedly in Egyptian.

"Oy, oy, Yugi-kun!" Katsuya Jonouchi exclaimed, mussing up his best friend's hair. "Did 'ya have fun?"

"You weren't too much of a terror for everyone, were you?" Sugoroku Mutou asked jokingly.

Yugi let out a giggle, rubbing the back of his neck. "Nope, not too much."

Jonouchi then drifted over to where Marik and Isis were talking, one of his goofy looks on his face. "Oy, Marik-kun, I bet you guys know a lot of cool hocus pocus now, ne?"

Bakura, Seto, and Yugi sweatdropped as Marik focused a stony faced expression on him. "Baka koinu."

Jonouchi growled as the others chuckled, looking like he was going to hit the Egyptian.

"Ready, are you?" a voice suddenly snarled.

They all turned to see a large, mustached, purple-faced man, scowling down at Harry. Behind him was a thin woman with too much makeup and jewelry and an unhealthily pudgy boy, both of them looking at all of them with terrified expressions. Yugi gulped; he remembered Harry telling him about these people. They were the younger wizard's Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and cousin Dudley.

"You must be Harry's family!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed.

"In a matter of speaking," Vernon replied coldly before turning back to Harry. "Hurry up, boy. We haven't got all day."

He walked off, but Harry hung back a bit, getting in a last word with his friends.

"See you over the summer, then," he said to Ron.

"Hope you have a… good holiday," Hermione replied uncertainly, watching Vernon's retreating back and wondering how anyone could be so rude.

A smile broke out on Harry's face, however. "Oh, don't worry, I will," he assured them. _"They _don't know I can't use magic at home. I'm going to have a lot of fun with Dudley this summer."

With that, he took off after his uncle. Yugi waved after him, shouting, "Ja ne! Harry-kun!"

Harry turned as he ran, waving back. "Ja ne, Yugi-kun!" he shouted back. "See you at school next year!"

Yugi smiled. School next year… he would never admit being more excited going back to school. The summer could not go by fast enough; he could not wait to go back to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!


End file.
